The Supreme Court of Venezuela, often accused of being at the behest of those in power, confirmed the ineligibility for fifteen years of Henrique Capriles, opposition heavyweight and twice presidential candidate, on Friday January 26. Mr. Capriles was declared ineligible for alleged administrative irregularities when he was governor of Miranda state.
The Supreme Court must also announce on Friday its decision concerning the ineligibility of Maria Corina Machado, who won the opposition primary for the next presidential election at the end of 2024.
Henrique Capriles came second in the 2012 election behind former president Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, and second again in the presidential election in 2013, behind current president Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s designated heir. The opposition boycotted the 2018 presidential election.
Ineligibility, a ploy to rule out opponents
He had mentioned his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, but ultimately withdrew during the primaries, won handily by Mme Machado. The agreement between power and opposition signed in Barbados in October 2023 notably opened up the possibility for those “aspiring to introduce himself” in the 2024 presidential election, to challenge their ineligibility. Maria Corina Machado presented an appeal in this context.
The lifting of the ineligibility of opponents is one of the main sticking points in the negotiations between power and opposition. The Barbados agreement provides that the presidential election will be held in the second half of 2024, in the presence of international observers. The United States announced a six-month relaxation of its sanctions following these agreements. According to the Supreme Court, the appeal presented by Mr. Capriles does not “did not meet the requirements set out and requested in the Barbados Agreement”.