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In an interview with BBC after Venezuela's parliamentary elections on December 6, former presidential candidate and Henrique Capriles discussed the disunified and leaderless nature of the country's opposition.
In the wake of a blowout victory for the PSUV-GPP coalition this December 6, having received nearly 70% of the vote, opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who himself did not run for a legislative seat, said that the opposition must continue on the electoral, rather than the violent path. He states that peace and reconciliation are what the Venezuelan people seek in this difficult socio-economic conjuncture.
As far-right opposition politician and self-proclaimed opposition leader and president Juan Guaido leave the National Assembly when the PSUV-GPP coalition assumes leadership of the legislative body on January 5, Capriles hopes to seize the opportunity to become the face of Venezuela's fractured opposition.
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In his statements to the BBC, Capriles claims that Venezuelans are fed up with Maduro's political leadership and Guaido's Trump-endorsed abstentionism. He maintains that the only way to reach a political solution is for the international community to delegitimize the electoral process and provide resources to create a new electoral body and a "re-institutionalization" of the country.
While he rejects putting the fate of Venezuela in the hands of Trump and the United States, calling for negotiations and dialogue that the far-right has rejected, Capriles agrees with the use of sanctions as a form of political pressure.
In the interview, Capriles said that the opposition "has no leader, no leadership, no boss" and that despite his belief in opposition unity, the majority of the moderate opposition parties do not agree with Guaido's US-directed and unilateral actions.
Clearly posturing himself to become the face and leader of the Venezuelan opposition in future presidential elections, Capriles said that Guaido and his Voluntad Popular party are "finished, closed, done" and that given the precarious economic situation in the country, he believes a military coup could happen at any moment, signaling the need for strong opposition leadership.
Stating that this upcoming year will be one in which the opposition must reinvent itself, Capriles dismissed Guaido's botched tactics are trying to assume political power, concluding that he has intentions to run for president in future elections.
According to Capriles, the opposition's main problem is its lack of commitment to the poor, for whom he claims to work day in and day out, affirming that the root of the issue is that Guaido's clan prefers to speak at the Spanish Parliament than in the working-class neighborhood of Petare.
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