AS/COA Insider: Guillermo Zubillaga on Venezuelan Elections

Venezuela is holding state and local elections on Sunday, November 21. And, for the first time since those same elections four years ago, the main opposition coalition is fielding candidates. AS/COA Online talks with Guillermo Zubillaga, Venezuela Working Group head and senior director for public policy programs, about why the vote isn’t free and fair, why the opposition and EU are participating, and why Venezuelans “just want to vote.”

• To speak with an expert on this topic, please contact mediarelations@as-coa.org.
• Learn more about the Venezuela Working Group.

AS/COA Online: Why did the opposition decide to suspend their boycott and participate in these races?

Guillermo Zubillaga: This was seen as a kind of first gesture by the opposition in the negotiation process taking place in Mexico City and brokered by the Norwegians, which ultimately is seeking a presidential election in Venezuela. The regime, however, has since abandoned the negotiation table after the United States extradited one of their diplomats, Alex Saab, whom many consider to have benefited from corrupt business deals, helped launder the Maduro regime’s money, and evade some financial sanctions. He’s Colombian, but the regime gave him a diplomatic title and they even wanted to make him part of their negotiating team. But the chavistas abandoned the dialogue, and here is the opposition with their decision to compete in these far-from-fair elections.

AS/COA Online: So the opposition is participating sort of as a show of good faith in the negotiations?

GZ: Partially. Also, people in the opposition felt that the strategy of a total regime change was not working and that we need to aim at a more gradual solution, so I think that those two combined give you the reason why you have part of the opposition in these elections.

AS/COA Online: And I suppose there’s only so long you can ask natural-born politicians to not run for office.

GZ: That’s right. Exactly. These opposition figures—some who are exiled or in prison and others who aren’t—would be very competitive in other countries, and they include people from underprivileged backgrounds, women and men who have good ideas. They’re not radical, they’re centrist, they understand the issues. But they’ve been operating in this context that is completely anti-democratic. They know how to put a campaign together, but just the conditions have not been there for them and, frankly, I don’t think they are there now.

AS/COA Online: Another new presence in these elections will be electoral observers from the EU for the first time in 15 years. Why has the EU said they decided to send observers, and what has the reaction from the rest of the international community been to this decision?

GZ: The EU decision also comes from the Mexico City talks. The EU was a big proponent of those talks. They are looking for a peaceful resolution to the Venezuelan crisis, so them participating as observers was seen as an “I can do my part” to try to help take this election to another level and support the opposition’s decision to participate, and back up or provide witness to their participation. That said, for the rest of the international community, the decision is being seen as having validated the process and helping Maduro because it gives this election an element of normalcy that it doesn’t have.

And the fact that the EU is observing the elections doesn’t mean that they will say these elections were free and fair. In many instances, they’ve gone to observe and end up detailing all the irregularities. I think that ultimately the EU observation could be helpful for a long-term solution to the Venezuelan crisis.