(Barinas) “We have been experiencing this calamity for 23 years. It could not last, ”said Adela Aliso, 62, candle in hand, during mass celebrating the victory of opposition candidate Sergio Garrido in the election of governor of Barinas, a state in western Canada. Venezuela ruled since 1998 by family members of former President Hugo Chavez.
Sunday, after a first ballot canceled by justice in November, the opposition achieved historic success, the opponent Sergio Garrido having won 55.36% of the vote, against 41.27% for the former son-in-law of Hugo Chavez and former vice-president Jorge Arreaza, who had nevertheless benefited from all the support and means of power.
“David against Goliath”
“Pray for our governor who was David against Goliath,” said priest Victor Manuel Roa in the Spanish colonial-style cathedral of Barinas, packed to welcome Sergio Garrido, the new governor, almost unknown a few weeks ago. .
Regional elected, Mr. Garrido, 54, had replaced at short notice the opposition candidate Freddy Superlano, who led the election when the courts annulled the latter and declared him ineligible in November.
“The people of Barinas woke up, got up after my victory […] on 21 (November) and understood that with the vote, which is the weapon of the Democrats, we could obtain changes ”, declared Mr. Garrido to AFP, not closing the door to discussions with the power : “We are ready to discuss with whom we must discuss, but on condition that it is to help the people of Barinas, who need it so much”.
Almost a quarter of a century of the Chavez family’s hold on the post of governor of this strategic state ended in this way. The dynasty began with the president’s father, Hugo de los Reyes Chavez (1998-2008) and continued with his brothers Adan (2008-2016) and Argenis (2017-2021).
“It ends where it started”
“It ends where it started,” wrote on his Twitter account Juan Guaidó, the number one opponent to the government of President Nicolas Maduro. “United, we will defend the will […] to get to know democracy again in Venezuela ”.
During a press conference on Monday, he spoke of a “lesson in resistance”, but it is undoubtedly above all a lesson in politics for the whole of the opposition which was unable to unite in November for regional elections.
Divided, it has been beaten to the ground, with power having won in 19 of the 23 states at stake as well as for the mayoralty of Caracas even as Venezuela has been mired for seven years in an economic crisis that has caused GDP to plummet. inhabitant of this oil-producing country at the level of that of Haiti.
This victory in the very stronghold of the Chavez is quite a “symbol”, believes Luis Vicente Leon, the director of the Datanalisis cabinet, stressing that it gives back its place to “the vote […] against abstention ”.
The opposition boycotted the 2018 presidential election won by Mr. Maduro and the 2020 legislative elections.
The government recognized its defeat, Jorge Arreaza having even announced it before the official proclamation of the results.
But, Monday, he returned to the charge.
“We did not achieve the objectives […] for the moment ”, he launched, paraphrasing Hugo Chavez who had used these words in 1992 after an abortive coup d’etat… seven years before taking power in 1999 and keeping it until his death in 2013 .
“Manage your victory well, make no mistake because there are people here! », Warned Mr. Arreaza.
In fact, while some hope that the opposition will ride on victory in Barinas to win the 2024 presidential election or organize a referendum to dismiss Mr. Maduro, Mariano de Alba, an expert from the International Crisis Group, believes that the situation has not radically changed: “I do not see the power ready to concede a defeat without a prior agreement with the opposition on the rules of the game and on what would happen to Chavismo if it lost” .