As Maduro faces Gonzalez in Venezuela, sanctions remain a key hurdle
Al Jazeera
In his tenure Maduro has seen an economic meltdown as GDP contracted 70 percent and 7.7 million Venezuelans fled in search of work.
“Life has been hard for years now. It’s true that food prices have come down recently, but they’re still so high,” says Rodrigo, a private security guard working in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. He did not want to give his last name.
Amid a decades-long economic crisis, Rodrigo thinks that “people are ready for a change.” On Sunday, he will join 21 million people who are eligible to vote in picking the country’s next president.
The general election falls on the birthday of Hugo Chavez. While Chavez had a troubling record on human rights, the charismatic left-wing leader – who governed Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013 – was celebrated as a champion of the poor.
His less popular successor, Nicolas Maduro, is now up against opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a retired diplomat. And polls show Gonzalez leading by a wide margin.
But Maduro has a knack for clinging to power. Most opposition parties boycotted his re-election in 2018, arguing the poll was neither free nor fair. In January, Maduro banned his main rival, Maria Corina Machado, from running.
