Maracaibo, Venezuela – The journey from the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to the coastal city of Maracaibo should only take about nine hours. For Maria Corina Machado, however, it took longer to 12.
Machado, a popular opposition leader, hit the road in the final days of Venezuela’s presidential race to campaign on behalf of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the candidate hoping to unseat President Nicolás Maduro.
But as he traveled between cities, Machado noticed that government forces had blocked the roads. Gas stations were mysteriously closed along its route.
But Machado got used to these obstacles. As she explained at a press conference at her party headquarters in Maracaibo on July 24, she sees the filibusters as the last gasp of an authoritarian government fighting to maintain its grip on power.
“This is a confession from a regime that knows it is defeated”, Machado he saidwhen citing yet another example: efforts to deny accreditation to citizens who wish to act as election monitors.
“But just as we overcame all those obstacles, we will overcome this one too.”
On Sunday, Venezuelans go to the polls to vote for the presidency. But Maduro, the socialist president who has been in power since 2013, has struggled in the polls, trailing Gonzalez by a wide margin.
An opposition victory could put an end to almost a quarter of a century of socialist rule. Opposition leaders like Machado, however, warn that Maduro will not leave office without a fight.
They anticipate that the Maduro government will continue to sabotage their efforts – even if it means subverting democracy at the ballot box.
Haunted by obstacles
Machado, however, knows Maduro’s tactics well. The 56-year-old former member of Venezuela’s National Assembly was once one of the favorites in the presidential race.
Last October, she won the opposition primary with 92.5% of the vote. The Unitary Democratic Platform – the main opposition coalition – declared her its candidate for president.
But Maduro’s allies in the government tried to block her from holding office, accusing her of supporting US sanctions, being involved in corruption and losing money from Venezuela’s foreign assets.
In January, Venezuela’s Supreme Court upheld the ban: Machado was effectively removed from the race. She was also banned from traveling by plane.
Even so, Machado sought to rally voters on behalf of his replacement, Gonzalez. One of his recent campaign events in Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, drew about 200,000 spectators, according to Vente Venezuela, his political party.
But she remains a target, just like Gonzalez. Before last Tuesday’s rally in Maracaibo, the Venezuelan National Police detained six people for providing sound systems and transportation for their team.
His equipment was eventually confiscated. Machado and his team had to make do without a sound system, sometimes shouting to be heard by the crowd. But his voice was largely swallowed by the noise.
Even members of his campaign faced harassment. Since March, five of its employees have sought refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas to avoid arrest. They have been coordinating Machado’s campaign remotely, within the embassy walls.
Last week, Machado’s head of security was also arbitrarily detained, in what Machado described as “a kidnapping.” He was released the next day. Additionally, his campaign vehicles were vandalized and brake hoses were cut.
His team has become accustomed to carrying hoses and jerrycans of fuel on the road whenever they travel, in case the government forces the closure of gas stations along the route.
“It’s not a typical campaign,” campaign member Oliver Lopez Cano told Al Jazeera.
Still, Machado told Al Jazeera in a private conversation after the Maracaibo rally that he received unexpected support as Maduro’s popularity plummeted.
For years, groups of motorcyclists known as “motorizados” roamed the streets, harassing members of the political opposition.
But Machado said some of the bikers switched sides, fed up with the economic and political instability under Maduro.
“All the motorcyclists were Chavistas,” explained Machado, using a term that refers to the followers of Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor and mentor.
She described how thousands of motorcyclists – mostly men – helped protect her campaign as it sailed across the country.
Even in government lockdowns, security forces have sometimes hesitated to obstruct her progress when they see the motorcyclists she travels with, Machado said. “They went from being a threat to becoming a shield.”
Targeting the bases
But opposition leaders are not the only individuals facing government backlash.
Critics accuse the Maduro government of attacking low-level political workers and even small business owners for their association with the opposition.
In the three weeks since the start of the campaign season on July 4, the Venezuelan human rights organization Foro Penal has documented 149 cases of arbitrary detentions for political reasons.
One such case involved a man named Aldo Roso Vargas, an activist with Voluntad Popular, an opposition party.
He was arrested on his way to an opposition campaign event in Caracas earlier this month, accused of trying to destabilize the electricity system.
Gonzalo Himiob Santome, co-founder and vice-president of Foro Penal, said examples like Roso’s illustrate how far the Maduro government is willing to go to stay in power.
“The government’s intention is to intimidate anyone who shows proximity to the opposition movement in one way or another,” Himiob said.
Even restaurant owners and drivers who served opposition figures reportedly faced intimidation from the government and its allies.
This was the case at Plaza Real Grill in San Cristobal, capital of the Venezuelan state of Táchira.
Cesar Perez Vivas, brother of the steakhouse’s owners, said Venezuelan tax authorities preemptively closed the restaurant on trumped-up charges of tax fraud shortly before Machado and Gonzalez were scheduled to visit.
A former governor of the state, Perez believes it was his association with the opposition that led to his brothers being targeted. He is a strong supporter of Machado and was barred from running for public office again.
“I’m the one who plays politics in the family, not them,” he said angrily.
He added that the Maduro government has always been violent in its repression of the opposition, “but in this campaign it has reached new levels”.
An ominous warning
Maduro himself has hinted in recent weeks at an increase in violence as his campaign for a third term falters.
At a campaign rally on July 17, Maduro warned voters that war could erupt if the opposition won.
“If you don’t want Venezuela to fall into a bloodbath, a fratricidal civil war, because of the fascists, we will guarantee the greatest success, the greatest victory in the electoral history of our people,” he told the crowd.
This “bloodbath” observation sent shockwaves across the region, with world leaders such as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warning Maduro against undemocratic measures.
Himiob, the leader of Foro Penal, hopes that Venezuelans may face increasing repression in the coming days.
“With people on the streets, the government would not hesitate to repress violently to maintain control”, predicts Himiob.
Questions have already arisen about the integrity of the vote. Critics noted that some voting centers were closed. Others were renamed, in what the opposition believes is an attempt to confuse voters.
The vote itself is scheduled to feature Maduro’s image 13 times – above the names of 13 different parties – compared to just three appearances for Gonzalez.
Earlier this week, the government blocked five local news channels that were critical of the administration, further restricting the flow of information ahead of the vote.
Still, opposition leaders and their supporters hope to win a landslide victory at the polls.
This perspective keeps a spark of optimism alive in Roso, the imprisoned activist. Speaking to Al Jazeera through a family member who asked to remain anonymous, Roso explained that he has difficulty breathing in his prison cell. He has contracted a fever since his arrest.
The family member added that Roso was prevented from communicating with his family during the first eight days of detention. He continues to be denied access to a lawyer of his choosing.
His loved ones can now bring Roso food, clothing and medicine, but his future remains uncertain. He and his family said they only have one hope: this Sunday’s elections.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
