Mara Corina Machado: What the Mainstream Media Isn't Saying About Her (Venezuela)

By Steve EllnerJuly 8, 2024 Z 15 Mins Read
Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.



Maria Corina Machado at the WEF | Photo by Bel Pedrosa via wikimedia commons


For every decision Venezuela’s opposition has made in recent months, the far-rightist María Corina Machado has had the last word. Center-right leaders, meanwhile, have ended up capitulating to her demands. Her success has much to do with the backing she has received from two faithful allies: Washington and the mainstream media.

With all the hype over María Corina Machado being the only real hope for Venezuela to overcome 25 years of autocratic rule, the mainstream media loses sight of several key factors surrounding the nation’s presidential elections slated for July 28. First, the U.S. has played a central role in favor of Machado’s candidacy and, once it was clear that the government of Nicolas Maduro would not allow her to run, Washington backed the notion that she had the right to choose who would represent the so-called united democratic opposition at the polls.

Second, it was never clear on what basis Machado claimed to have that right, especially in light of the fact that there were contenders who were as anti-Maduro as her pick and were infinitely more qualified.
And third, Machado’s rise as the supreme leader of the Venezuelan opposition is part of a world-wide trend in which far-right leaders and movements have achieved major inroads.

Machado is not the godsend for the opposition portrayed by the media and her close supporters. But opposition leaders have more cause for hope than in the past. Unlike the 2018 presidential elections and subsequent electoral contests, all opposition parties, large and small, have opted for electoral participation. Even those most stridently opposed to the Chavistas (the followers of Hugo Chávez) now recognize that electoral abstentionism had been a losing game. Furthermore, the four main opposition parties known as the G4, and its broader alliance, the Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD), are united behind Machado. Last October, she was pronounced the winner in the opposition primaries with a whopping 92 percent of the vote.

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