Venezuelans in Doral and around the world vote for an opposition candidate

This story was updated at 5 pm, Oct. 23.

Venezuelans around the world voted on Sunday to help select the opposition coalition’s candidate for next year’s presidential election — including in Doral, where the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S. went to the polls with renewed hope that their home country can return to democracy.

Monday afternoon, as ballots were still being counted, the Venezuelan opposition coalition's National Primary Commission announced that conservative former congresswoman María Corina Machado had an "irreversible" lead — some 90% of the vote — and the victory she'd already declared earlier in the day appeared to be confirmed.

Even so, it's uncertain if Machado will be able to run in the general presidential election, since Venezuela's authoritarian regime earlier this year declared her ineligible.

South Florida Venezuelan expat leaders told WLRN on Sunday they expected more than half the 35,000 eligible voters here to cast ballots at the Miami-Dade College West Campus.

Last week, authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in return for an easing of some U.S. economic sanctions against his dictatorial regime, agreed to reforms to make the presidential election more fair for an opposition challenger. Though many remain skeptical Maduro will abide by the agreement in the long run — the U.S. has warned him it will reapply the sanctions if he does not — many who voted on Sunday said things were moving in the right direction.

Miami realtor Beco Mora said that’s one big reason turnout for this primary vote was high.

“The future of Venezuela depends on these elections," said Mora. "We need to get Maduro out of power — and there is a lot more optimism now.”

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Polls had shown Machado was the clear front-runner for the opposition coalition’s primary vote, which featured 10 other candidates. But earlier this year, the Maduro regime disqualified Machado from running in elections because of "corruption" charges against her that the U.S. and much of the international community have derided as bogus. As a result, it's unclear if the regime would let her on the general election ballot next year, despite last week's electoral reforms agreement.

The Biden Administration has indicated it will also re-apply sanctions if Machado is kept off the next year's ballot, since one of the points Maduro agreed to last week was to let the opposition choose its own candidate.

Tim Padgett

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WLRN

After voting for Machado on Sunday in Doral, Venezuelan expat Fátima Valencia, a home health care aide in Tamarac, said she also fears divisions inside the Venezuelan opposition party coalition, known as the Unitary Platform, could undermine the campaign against Maduro.

“I don’t have trust in much of the [opposition] parties," Valencia said.

"They don’t have interests in the people, in the needs that the people have in Venezuela. They just have their own interests, and I fear some of them will make deals with Maduro.”

Venezuela is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in modern South American history — and many of the people who voted in Doral on Sunday are part of the massive exodus that has drained the country of more than a fifth of its population in recent years.

The Venezuelan opposition as well as the U.S. and much of the international community, insist the socialist Maduro's re-election in 2018 was fraudulent.

Florida Democratic Chair Nikki Fried said the Biden administration “must remain cautious and vigilant to ensure the Maduro regime sticks to their word and allows for opposition candidates to run for President."

“If Maduro does anything to breach this agreement, the Biden-Harris administration should not hesitate to place the sanctions back,” she said in a statement.

Fried and other top Florida Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, were on hand Sunday at Miami-Dade College campus in Doral to witness local Venezuelans casting ballots. Wasserman Schultz's congressional district has one the largest Venezuelan-American communities in the country.

"Today is a day of hope for Venezuelans, and all Americans heartbroken by Venezuela’s lost decade under Maduro," Wasserman Schultz posted on X, formerly Twitter, along with a video.