Disillusioned former socialists in Venezuela now support the opposition

Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday is expected to draw a level of voter enthusiasm not seen in the country for at least ten years.

Large audiences have attended opposition demonstrations despite a tense climate characterized by the arrest of opposition activists and charges of conspiracy, including disillusioned former supporters of President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling party.

In his bid for a third term, Maduro has struck a confident tone regarding his victory against the “extreme right.”

The opposition, which abstained from the 2018 election on the grounds that it would not be fair, has claimed that electoral authorities have made decisions that are intended to confuse voters and reduce support for the opposition.

However, since the late President Hugo Chavez assumed office in 1999, a political force other than the Socialist Party has never had true momentum and a chance to win. This is the case with rival Edmundo Gonzalez’s campaign.

According to interviews Reuters conducted at opposition rallies and in towns around the nation, a portion of the fervor for Gonzalez, a 74-year-old former diplomat, comes from former “Chavistas” who once came out in large numbers to support the party of Maduro and his mentor Chavez.

They said that the effects of years of economic hardship and the migration of over 7.7 million people had been felt.

Edgar Gonzalez, 39, stated, “I liked Chavismo, what they proposed, that wealth should be shared, that opportunities to get ahead should be given to many, that the most vulnerable would have a chance,” while he was in Valencia, the state capital of central Carabobo.

Gonzalez claimed, “But then this madness came.” He claimed that after his previous company closed in 2021, he lost his accounting job and is currently supported by motorcycle deliveries. “I don’t regret my past, but I’ve understood that’s not the way.”

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has a lot of support, according to Oswaldo Ramirez, director of Caracas consulting firm ORC Consultores.

Although Machado is prohibited from holding public office, she has poured herself into the Gonzalez campaign despite her overwhelming victory in the primaries last year.

However, Ramirez also noted that there is “a Chavista discontent that believes the country needs to begin a new path and that the revolution has basically rusted.”
Although Maduro has eased currency controls and reduced the previously extremely high inflation, the economy is nevertheless hindered by ongoing sanctions and a decline in OPEC member nation oil revenue.

In the event that the opposition prevails, he has threatened a “bloodbath” and assured a new phase of growth during which the economy will not be dependent on oil revenue.

At the simultaneous Gonzalez-Machado demonstration in Valencia, teacher Marina Perez stated, “We’ve spent 25 years supporting Chavistas with the hope that at some point they were going to straighten out the country’s path, but every day is worse.” She said that her pay had not gone up in the previous two years.

“Now there are two leaders who give us new inspiration,” Perez remarked. “That’s what we want: a change.”

BIKES RALLY

Cheering crowds have greeted Gonzalez and Machado across the nation; occasionally emotional spectators have given them rosaries or other mementos.

They have occasionally been accompanied by motorcycle caravans, which could be another indication that things are changing in Venezuela.

For a long time, motorcycle clubs have been seen as strongholds of the ruling party’s support. Several were charged for using violence against demonstrators opposing the government in significant marches in 2014 and 2017.

However, numerous motorcycle club members have recently shown up at anti-government demonstrations, occasionally providing transportation for Machado when security personnel have closed off a way to her vehicle.

Per videos released by the opposition, Gonzalez also recently rode a motorcycle in the western city of Barinas.

At a protest this month in Maduro, motorcycle riders were also highlighted.

For those in Venezuela who have limited access to larger loans and make the minimum wage of $3.50 per month, the president has extended credit for the purchase of motorcycles on multiple occasions.

Nevertheless, even for the most ardent Chavistas, that might be too little, too late.
“Those in our group who support the government have been let down because they are experiencing the crisis firsthand,” stated Hermes Alvarez, 42, a rider from a motorcycle club in the western region of Barquisimeto.

Riding at a Machado rally in Carabobo in early July, biker Cesar Mendoza, 46, stated, “Socialism has led us to live in decline.”