Maria Corina Machado, the former lawmaker who’d tallied 93% of the primary’s opposition vote this year, has been banned from running for the Office of the Presidency.
Venezuela’s Supreme Justice Tribunal made the decision to uphold a ban that prevented Machado from holding office, ending her plans for the election later in 2024.
The country’s highest court said it upheld findings that the candidate was involved in corruption and had lost money for Venezuela’s foreign assets, including oil enterprise Citgo and chemicals company Monomeros.
Following the decision, Machado’s proposed candidate Corina Yorina, an 80 year old professor, was also barred from being a candidate to run for the presidency.
Yorina was unable to access the electoral authority’s online system to register as a candidate.
Venezuela’s democratic institutions and economy have been deteriorating since 1999, however the situation has grown worse in recent years due to elections and government crackdowns on the opposition.
The US government has earlier made an agreement with Venezuela’s President Maduro to lesson sanctions on the country in return for releasing political prisoners and agreeing to make progress toward free elections.
Independent platform HumVenezuela, which monitors, the country’s humanitarian crisis, estimated that from 2020 to 2022, two out of every three individuals in the country needed humanitarian assistance.
The country, which often experiences record inflation, closed 2023 with inflation of 190%, a slowdown compared to the previous year’s 234%, according to Venezuela’s Central Bank.
