How to Make Friends and Influence Governments: Venezuela’s Petro-Diplomacy Lives On
The habit of getting incredible deals from Caracas survived the collapse of PDVSA and is helping Maduro to ease the effect of U.S. pressure
The CNE removed 16 political parties from the ballot, including two in the Unitary Platform. The mainstream opposition can now only compete under the traditional MUD and Zulia governor Manuel Rosales’s UNT. And MUD’s survival lingers on a judicial decision.
The habit of getting incredible deals from Caracas survived the collapse of PDVSA and is helping Maduro to ease the effect of U.S. pressure
The National Electoral Council (CNE) eliminated the electoral cards of 16 parties from the ballot, including that of MAS, that of Leocenis García’s party, that of Eduardo Fernández’s party and those of two of the three parties (Convergencia and Movimiento por Venezuela) of the Unitary Platform that had their own cards. The Platform still maintains the MUD card and that of Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), another member party.
The cards of other 33 parties were also approved by the CNE: including five new parties, such as that of Benjamín Rausseo “er Conde del Guácharo” and that of Daniel Ceballos. However, the survival of the MUD card could be affected by a court decision.
In fact, Luis Ratti –a politician close to Chavismo who has asked the government for judicial decisions against the opposition– attended the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) on Friday, before the CNE decision, to request that the Convergencia, Movimiento por Venezuela and MUD cards be eliminated.
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Gerardo Blyde –chief negotiator of the opposition– said that such a “closely compacted electoral schedule makes the process difficult” and that the CNE has not yet sent the invitations it announced for the electoral observation missions. “This is clearly intended to prevent them from coming on time,” he said. Blyde also explicitly ruled out the possibility of being a “substitute” presidential candidate