( Spanish) – The US elections are a political event that hardly goes under the table in Venezuela. In the midst of their routines, many Venezuelans follow with interest the development of the process with an eye on the internal situation, that is, the economic crisis and at the same time the political uncertainty. This is because the opposition questions the legitimacy of the re-election of President Nicolás Maduro on July 28 and claims to have evidence. Meanwhile, the electoral power has not presented the results broken down by voting center and polling station and has not shown the minutes as evidence of the announced results.
In this context, Venezuelans follow the development of the day in which the new leader of the White House will be defined, whether it is the Democratic candidate and current vice president, Kamala Harris, or the Republican candidate and former president Donald Trump. Venezuelans think about the speeches of each leader and what the impact of their policies could be on the Latin American nation.
The internationalist Giovanna De Michele told that Venezuela has become an issue of interest on the United States agenda and vice versa, since Venezuelan society tends to lean towards one candidate or another depending on how they presented their policies towards Venezuela during the campaign. . De Michele explains that there is a sector “that could be described as more radical” that believes that a new Trump Government is better because they consider that it could increase pressure on the Maduro Government, and they still trust that this pressure could generate a change in the political direction of the country.
De Michele explains that there is another sector that, in his opinion, could be considered “less radical” and that perhaps is betting more on a victory for Harris, thinking that with the Democrats a relaxation of sanctions can be achieved and that “at some point “This flexibility could become an improvement in the conditions and quality of life of Venezuelans.”
For his part, President Maduro said this Monday that whoever wins the presidential elections in the United States will have to “speak, dialogue and understand each other” with the revolutionary government of Venezuela.
“They have asked me, but quite often, and they write to me: ‘President, what do you think is best for Venezuela?’ May Trump win or Kamala Harris win?’” Maduro said in his weekly program that airs on state television VTV.
The president avoided predicting who will win the presidency in the United States, but said that “whoever wins, what is best for Venezuela and Latin America is to have our own path, not depend on anyone, to guarantee our countries.”
A similar position is maintained by the opposition candidate Edmundo González and the opposition leader María Corina Machado, who have not issued a word on the issue in line with the opposition strategy of maintaining bipartisan support in the United States.
For his part, the director of the Center for Political and Government Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, Benigno Alarcón, highlighted that, although it is true that the policy that has prevailed from the United States towards Venezuela has been bipartisan, “whoever occupies the White House will have a very important weight at the end of the day.”
For Alarcón, everything seems to indicate that an eventual Harris Government in relation to Venezuela will be a situation similar to the one we have today. Regarding whether Trump wins the elections, Alarcón considers that in this scenario there is a big question.
“We don’t know. We know what happened in the past. How he behaved, but we also know that there were things that did not work out as the White House expected at the time and that could change behavior,” he said.
For his part, De Michele assures that perhaps the Venezuelan Government could view a possible victory for Harris with less apprehension since it comes from the same Government of Joe Biden, a Government that has relaxed the sanctions against Venezuela in relation to the measures imposed on the oil market. since 2019.
In De Michele’s opinion, Trump, on the contrary, has been characterized by much more radical positions. But he highlights that everything will also depend on the lobbying of the Venezuelan exile in the United States, because “a good part of the measures adopted by Trump during his time in the White House were influenced, in his opinion, so to speak, by “Venezuelan exile in Washington.”
Although there are two political paths that both analysts agree will have an impact on Venezuela, in Alarcón’s opinion, in no case will the relationship with Venezuela improve. He considers that, in the best scenario, “regardless of who the president is, the conditions of the US relationship with Venezuela will be the same and may be worse and may be much more eventful and complicated than they currently are.” , but never better.”
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