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‘We have to organize’: In a house in a poor Caracas neighborhood, Carmen Castillo, 68, and five other women meet to tweak details and go out to “campaign” for votes for Edmundo González Urrutia, the main opposition rival in the July 28 presidential election for President Nicolás Maduro.
They are part of the so-called “comanditos,” a network of community volunteers that began joining this year to mobilize opposition voters behind González Urrutia and ensure the defense of the ballot.
«Encourage people to go out. If people are not there, you have to go out and look for them at their homes. Mobilize everywhere,» he said Voice of America Carmen is a housewife.
The group is betting that González Urrutia, 74, and disqualified leader María Corina Machado will break with 25 years of Chavismo. However, Maduro, who is eager for a third six-year term, is confident of his victory and has also drawn up a mobilization mechanism for July 28: “1×10”, which seeks to ensure that for every pro-government militant, 10 additional voters who support the government are captured.
In any case, the campaign was marked by complaints about political persecution and the arrests of leaders who supported the actions of Machado and González.
At least 37 activists have been arrested so far this year in various circumstances. Against this backdrop, the task for Carmen and others is not an easy one.
Out of fear, some even decided to cancel all types of publicity that alluded to Machado and González. Carmen plays this piece.
“This is the last train we are going to take, there are no other trains, and if we don’t take it now, we shouldn’t wait another six years. We have to do it now,” he said.
They also deal with neighbors’ concerns about being seen as naysayers and losing some of their social benefits.
“There are many people who have changed their mindset but are living under threat. Threatened that they will lose their jobs, their bonuses will be taken away,” he noted.
‘Fear is freeing’, but it doesn’t paralyze them
Marina López, 63, who will serve as a coordinator at a voting center on July 28, was also present and has no doubt that the opposition is in the majority.
“The important thing is, I assure you, people are well aware that the changes that took place on the 28th were simply because of, whatever they did,” he said without fear of making a mistake.
“Someone who feels like a winner doesn’t do all this nonsense that (Maduro) is doing,” he insisted of the arrests.
But fear is free, he admitted, “Sometimes I wonder ‘What’s going to happen on election day, they’re going to attack us here, they’re going to attack us there.'” Mind you, it’s not even the 28th, election day, and they’re already putting people in jail because they bought empanadas, or I’m with Maria Corina, people are scared, it’s not a lie.
According to the Unified Platform (PUD), around 58,000 ‘commando teams’ have been created across the country.
“Over there they are threatening our commanders. The scared ones want to scare our commanders. Do you know how those who threaten our commanders react? “We are going to have more commandos all over Venezuela!” Machado shouted during a campaign stop in the Venezuelan Andes in late June.
“This man is responsible for breaking up families”: a common cry
Ending the 25-year-old Chavista system is “crucial” to members of this “commando brigade”, who share a common pain: their relatives have left the country to escape an economic crisis that has caused Venezuelans’ incomes to collapse.
“I gave birth to nine children for this country, but they’re all gone (…) My grandchildren are gone, my nephews… Everybody is gone! Sara Navarro, 71, burst into tears.”
In 2018, her first child said goodbye to her. So, little by little, the remaining children came out. He has only met one of them, and his work allows him to travel frequently.
“It’s the first time I’ve experienced this kind of horror. It’s so horrible for me,” he vented.
Carmen Castillo added: “There is not a family that does not have relatives outside of Venezuela, and that is sad.”
His 16-year-old granddaughter made it through the Darien jungle to Mexico and now hopes to enter the U.S. “What she’s been through, no one has ever been through,” he lamented.
Venezuelans were the first people to take to the densely packed roads along the Colombian and Panamanian borders.
“This man (Maduro) has taken it upon himself to divide families, isolate families, and isolate the country.”
Castillo acknowledged that this background motivated her to become a mobilizer of the opposition on Election Day.
“We can’t achieve this without organization,” he said.
Marina López wants more: “We will defend the vote (..) The turnout will be huge. “People will go to vote and they will stay there (at the polls)”
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By Nicole Cortes and Adriana Nunez-La Pazcal/Voice of America
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