After everything that has occurred in Venezuela lately, Technician talked with Yon Goicoechea, member of the Venezuela’s opposition and one of the students who created the Student Movement, which led Chavez’s first defeat in an election in 2007 when he lost a referendum to change the constitution. Goicoechea was also the winner of the Milton Friedman Award for the Liberty, he is in charge of the Institute for the Young in Caracas and he is the member of the opposition party “First Justice.”
Venezuela will hold new elections on April 14 after the death of the former President Hugo Chávez, and officially the campaign has started between Nicolás Maduro, the successor of Chávez, and Henrique Capriles, the governor of the state of Miranda.
“I expect that the government will show its irregularities,” said Goicoechea, referring to what he expects in this campaign. “If the opposition losses, we can’t take a lot of value in this election. The Center of National Elections is not impartial; there is even 1 or 2 million of people who vote against the law.”
The Venezuelan army, with Minister of Defense Diego Alfredo Molero Bellavia leading, announced that they would go out to the streets to protect the “revolution” from Chávez.
“The minister put himself in a ridiculous position asking to vote for one sector,” said Goicoechea, explaining that Maduro doesn’t have the leadership or control that Chávez did.
Right now, Vice President Maduro is in charge of the country. Goicoechea commented on Maduro’s leadership, saying, “The Constitutional Chamber decided that becuase Chávez was the same person that governed the last period, there was no need to do a presidential oath like the constitution says.”
“Because Chavez never started his new period due to his sickness, the President of the Congress should have called for elections Jan. 10, but they lied, and that time was used to make people get to know Maduro, who would become the new candidate,” Goicoechea said. “The constitution does not exists if there are no professional judges who will respect it.” Goicoechea said he thinks the legislative, executive and judicial branches of Venezuela are monopolized by “Chavismo.”
“In Venezuela there will be no change until the Venezuelans understand that there are no legal ways to report the violations to the constitution,” Goicoechea said. “Not so long ago there was devaluation of the currency by 50 percent. There is lack of food, we barely produced and we depended on importation. We have an economic crisis ahead of us.”
Now there is less than a month for elections, and Venezuelans will decide which road they will follow, and Henrique Capriles said he’s determined to win after losing against Chavez in October 2012.
“It is impossible to find a candidate in only one month,” Goicoechea said. “Capriles was elected in primary elections and is known by the country, any other guy would have created problems in the unity of the opposition.”
Goicoechea said the Capriles’ campaign will not be easy at all, and that the opposition is trying to convince the public the importance of the opposition’s new opportunity.
“If Maduro wins, I can be sure he will not finish his period, how can he finish when the crisis explodes? When the missions suspend the funds, what is he going to do? All this revolution is coming to an end and is inevitable that it will fall,” Goicoechea.
If Capriles wins Goicoechea said there will be controversy as well.
“We will try to find a change, but this change will be slow since the government under Chávez has a monopoly in the country, but I expect the country to get better in around two years. I wish Chávez could have lived to see all what he did to the country, and see Venezuela fall in crisis.”
