Threat to authoritarian leader has led to questions about how far he will go to cling on to power
Joe Daniels in Bogotá and Jesús Abreu in Caracas JULY 13 2024
Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian president, has overseen a slow-motion economic collapse, an exodus of millions of people, and escalating oppression during his 11 years in office. But the deeply unpopular leader now faces one of his toughest challenges ahead of elections on July 28 — and she is not even listed on the ballot paper. The banned opposition leader María Corina Machado has helped to secure a commanding lead for her proxy in the race, little-known former diplomat Edmundo González.
That has prompted Maduro to launch a charm offensive to try to win the public over, appearing on TikTok and at rallies with a spry, avuncular persona. The leader who has presided over an economic disaster dances, poses for selfies and sings for his audience. At a campaign rally in a downtrodden Caracas neighbourhood on a balmy afternoon after two merengue singers worked up attendees, Maduro framed the election as a choice between a relatable everyman and a pliant stand-in for the elite. “Do you want a puppet president, who is weak, who can be manipulated and who nobody has heard of?” he asked the crowd, some decked out in the crimson of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela. “Or do you want a president from the barrio [neighbourhood], of the people?” Maduro is seeking a third consecutive term, having inherited power in 2013 from his late populist mentor Hugo Chávez, the founder of the country’s ongoing Bolivarian Revolution, which combines a state-led economy with nationalism. High oil revenues underwrote generous social spending under Chávez, while sinecures were handed to inexperienced loyalists.
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