Smiling, determined, downright somber. Posters, murals, signs, shirts, even action figures — Nicolás Maduro’s mustached face is ubiquitous in the blistering streets of Caracas, watching over Venezuelans voting in Sunday’s presidential election. However, despite the Chavista leader’s pictorial omnipresence, for the first time in 25 years, the left-wing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is at risk of losing power. The election’s aftermath, whatever its outcome, is also an enigma.
As some polls state that Sunday’s are the first elections that could oust Chavismo from power in 25 years, analysts doubt that Maduro, who is aiming for a third term, will hand over power as he spoke about a “blood bath” and a “civil war” if the opposition wins. The opposition has also failed to recognize Chavista electoral victories in 2013, 2017, and 2018.
The main opposition candidate is centrist Edmundo González Urrutia, a diplomat and political analyst who was the Venezuelan ambassador to Argentina under Hugo Chávez’s first presidency between 1998 and 2002. He joined the ranks of the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD for its Spanish initials) and became its international representative from 2013 to 2015.
González Urrutia was not the MUD’s first choice. Right-wing politician and industrial engineer María Corina Machado won her party’s primaries in October 2023 and was set to be the presidential candidate. However, she was barred from participating by the Comptroller General of Venezuela, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court due to her alleged involvement in a plot to get the United States to impose economic sanctions on Venezuela and her........