Elections are scheduled to be held in Venezuela on July 28, 2024 – the day that would have been Hugo Chavez’s 70th birthday – to choose a president for a six-year term beginning on 10 January 2025. While this can be seen as a partial fulfillment of the Barbados accord, leading opposition candidates are still disqualified from participating.
Maduro’s missteps sour U.S.-Venezuela relations, threaten Barbados Accord – AMI | OilNOW
The Barbados Accord outlined requirements for free and fair elections in the South American country. The hope was for a democratic process with President Nicolas Maduro having an opponent for the presidency. In return, the U.S. eased sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gold sectors, helping Caracas begin to pull itself out of a years-long economic slump.
But Maduro did not keep his word. Venezuela’s High Court upheld a June 2023 ban on opposition presidential candidates, including leading contender Maria Corina Machado. Machado won the U.S.-backed opposition primary in October 2023. Her support for U.S. sanctions against Maduro and his administration was said to have irked him. And on Jan. 31, the U.S. reimposed sanctions on Venezuela.
Machado is Maduro’s main opponent and appears to be his biggest threat to re-election.
Venezuela’s Controller General, Elvis Amoroso had banned her from public office in June due to her support for U.S. sanctions against Maduro’s regime. Despite the ban, Machado continued her campaign and won the opposition primaries in October last. However, Venezuela’s top court suspended the primary results and ratified bans on her and other opposition candidates, after Venezuela’s attorney general Tarek William Saab said his office was investigating the primary and members of its organizing commission for electoral violations, financial crimes, and conspiracy.
