CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans head to the polls today for a chance to elect officials from the country’s top opposition parties for the first time in nearly four years.
Opposition candidates aren’t expected to win many of the races for governor and mayor. They say the elections have been stacked against them by the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro, even under the close watch of more than 130 European Union observers spread across the country.
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For the opposition, the vote is an opportunity to revive a disillusioned base and redefine the leadership of the fractured and faltering pro-democracy movement. For Maduro, they’re a chance to reassert strength while projecting a veneer of legitimacy before the first international election observation mission in 15 years.
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But for Atahualpa Carusí, the vote is about something far more basic: Running water.
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“If they promise they can solve the water issue, for good, I will give them my vote,” said Carusí, a 78 year-old street vendor who wore a Santa Claus hat as he stood by his eyeglasses stand in the center of Caracas.
A voter since he was 18, Carusí remembers when elections meant progress. Now, all he wants is a candidate who will get water flowing through his pipes again so he can shower more than once a week. “This is a hell, what we’re living in.”
Infrastructure failures amid the country’s crumbling economy have left most homes in Venezuela without reliable running water, prompting dozens of protests each month. Local candidates, pro-government and opposition alike, have focused campaign messaging on pledges to solve the crisis, even though the water system is under the control of the national government.
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Héctor Rodríguez, the pro-Maduro governor of Miranda running for reelection, promised “water through pipes” if he is reelected. An opposition rival, David Uzcátegui promised to dig wells. Henri Falcón, a candidate for governor of Lara state, said that if elected, he would engage a team of experts.
Voters are skeptical that any of them will make much of a difference.
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Analysts say it will be difficult for the opposition to make significant gains. Voters are largely apathetic, the electorate is fractured and the government has far greater resources with which to campaign.
Major opposition parties announced in September that they would participate in the polls on Sunday, ending a three-year boycott of elections conducted by the Maduro government and widely viewed as fraudulent. The decision to field candidates was divisive from the beginning; opponents include one key leader: Juan Guaidó, recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries as Venezuela’s rightful president.
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Multiple opposition leaders and Venezuelans have cooled on Guaidó. But the United States has no plans to withdraw its support, Brian Nichols, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said last week.
Guaidó will not be voting in this week’s elections. In a video statement released Friday, he accused the Maduro government of controlling the electoral authority, failing to release political prisoners, limiting media access and making use of public resources for the elections.
“There is no fair game,” he said. “We cannot in any way normalize the dictatorship.”
The electoral council, which consists of three people tied to Maduro’s party and two members of the opposition, has promised transparency. According to the council, two of the biggest TV stations in the country are being investigated for allegedly unbalanced coverage. Candidates from both the opposition and the government are under investigation for using state resources for their campaigns.
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Maduro is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity. He told state-run television that the elections will show “the strength of Venezuelan democracy above any conspiracy.”
The elections come weeks after negotiations in Mexico between the government and opposition were put on hold. The government suspended participation after businessman Alex Saab, a Maduro ally, was extradited to the United States to face money laundering charges.
They also come on the four-year anniversary of the detention of the Citgo Six — five U.S. citizens and a permanent resident with the oil refiner Citgo — who traveled to Venezuela for a meeting and were not allowed to return home. The U.S. State Department released a statement Sunday calling again for their “unconditional return and the release of all U.S. nationals wrongfully detained overseas.”
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Henrique Capriles, a two-time opposition presidential candidate and Guaidó critic who helped form an alliance to promote the opposition’s participation, said “a process of reorganization and relaunching of the democratic forces must come on Monday,” regardless of the results.
“The adversary is neither Guaidó nor any other leadership within the democratic forces,” he said in a news conference Friday. “The adversary is Maduro.”
Yet in races across Venezuela, divisions in the opposition were helping Maduro’s party. In Miranda state, the opposition fielded two competing candidates. At the last minute, candidate Carlos Ocariz attempted to withdraw in favor of Uzcátegui in an effort to unify the opposition vote. But the Electoral Council ruled it was too late.
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With a movement so fragmented, political analyst Nicmer Evans said, “the only thing that can come of November 21 is a new opportunity to reorganize the Venezuelan opposition.”
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Opposition lawmaker Tomás Guanipa, exiled from the country, served as Guaidó's ambassador to Colombia for two years before returning to Venezuela in August. Now he’s running for mayor in a Caracas-area municipality, a Maduro stronghold that will be difficult to win.
The opposition, “has to relaunch itself,” he said. It needs to focus less on its international support and more on connecting with Venezuelans.
“We have to return to the clear role that we are the opposition and not the government,” he said. “We have to define a route.”
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Héctor Pacheco, a 53-year-old mechanic and father of three in Caracas, has no desire to cast a vote this year. He once supported president Hugo Chávez, the founder of Venezuela’s socialist state. But as the country’s economy crumbled, he closed the stand outside his home where he sold fried plantains. He demonstrated against the Maduro government years ago, but now he’s tired of it all.
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“You vote and just end up disappointed,” he said. “Every day, more disappointed.”
Pacheco and his wife, Rossana Brito, 50, live in El Calvario, a hillside slum of colorful homes in the shadow of million-dollar houses, pools and tennis courts in the El Hatillo municipality of Caracas.
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The couple was storing water in buckets in their cramped one-bedroom home to use for showering and washing dishes. The running water had arrived a day earlier, the first time in more than a week. By nightfall, it was gone again. At times, the family has gone two months or more without it.
Lately, the power has been going out every Sunday — for maintenance, local officials have told them.
“It’s insufferable,” he said. “And they don’t do anything about it.”
Brito doesn’t remember the last time she voted. She hadn’t yet decided if she would go to the polls on Sunday.
She just hoped the power would stay on.
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