Venezuela elects its next President

Just over 28 million Venezuelans will elect their next president tomorrow for the period 2025-2031, in a contest in which the current president Nicolás Maduro is running for re-election and the opposition is headed by former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.The main candidates for president ended their electoral campaigns with massive events and now the expectation is focused on this Sunday’s vote. The competition is part of a strong internal dispute and the watchful eye of the international community, with the voices of different presidents who in recent days urged Maduro to accept the results in the event of an eventual defeat. Several polls gave the winner to González Urrutia, who heads an alliance forged with opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was excluded from participating in the electoral dispute, disqualified by the local Justice. The Venezuelan president has been in power since 2013, after the death of Hugo Chávez, and is the target of questions for violations of human rights, freedom of expression and persecution of opponents. We have constituted a new political, social, cultural majority, which is going to express itself with a resounding electoral majority, we have not only united Chavismo, we are all united without a single fissure, a single bloc of force,” said the Bolivarian president at the end of his campaign. At a ceremony in Maracaibo, capital of the oil state of Zulia, Maduro said: “The future of Venezuela for the next 50 years is being decided. Peace or war, guarimba or tranquility, extreme right or Chavista, fascism or popular democracy, savage capitalism. We have the ultimate battle. There will be a homeland or we will be a colony. Think well for your family, for your enterprise, for your company, for your work.” And he emphasized: “You are my example and you have been my inspiration and my strength. No one gives up here. We have faced the worst aggression in history, today the people are standing up and ready for the great victory.” In his closing campaign, González Urrutia showed, as during the rest of the electoral acts, very close to Machado.The event was multitudinous and took place in Las Mercedes, where the opposition tandem of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) paraded through the streets. The advantage we have is historic. We are going to win and we are going to get paid, and we trust that our Armed Forces will respect the will of their people,” said the opposition candidate. This Sunday there will be 28.3 million Venezuelans eligible to define the next president for the period 2025-2031.In addition, eight other candidates will compete, including the deputy and evangelical pastor Javier Bertucci, and the businessman and comedian Benjamin Rausseo.

Original source in Spanish