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Multitud cívica de espaldas con banderas de Venezuela en una plaza de Caracas frente a un obelisco al atardecer
Imagen alusiva a una movilización cívica en una plaza de Caracas. · Imagen generada para EPM

Machado calls protests in Venezuela to demand an election date

María Corina Machado urges people to join this Thursday, October 22 protests in Venezuela to demand a date for the presidential elections.

--- The context --- Venezuela is going through a transition after the United States military operation in January, which left more than a hundred people dead and led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, now standing trial in the United States. The country is led by Delcy Rodríguez as acting president, and no date has yet been set for presidential elections. --- The facts --- Venezuelan opposition figure and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado has called on the population to take part in the protests called for this Thursday in the country to demand that a date be set for the presidential elections. The call comes one day after her party, Vente Venezuela, announced the mobilizations for that same purpose. Machado spoke in a video shared on social media against a conformist stance toward the political situation in Venezuela. She said Venezuelans know what it has cost them to get this far and are determined to act so they can have a free Venezuela to which their children can return and live with dignity. The mobilization is called for this Thursday, October 22, at Plaza Venezuela in Caracas from 16.00 local time, and the call extends to every corner of the country demanding presidential elections across Venezuela. --- The positions --- Vente Venezuela has set out three demands it describes as clear and non-negotiable: the return of María Corina Machado to Venezuela, an electoral timetable and a presidential election in 2027, and full freedom for the political prisoners who remain in the country's prisons. Machado, who has been in Panama for months awaiting her return, recently proposed July 24, 2027 as the election date, coinciding with the anniversary of the birth of Simón Bolívar. The country, meanwhile, is led by Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro's vice president and was named acting president after his capture. Since she took office, the United States and Venezuela have drawn closer, with various agreements, including one on hydrocarbons, and with the meeting held in September in New York between Rodríguez and Donald Trump. --- What remains unknown --- The available information does not say whether the authorities have responded to the call or whether there is any official statement on the electoral timetable being demanded. It also does not specify what reach the mobilization will have outside Caracas or whether talks are open on Machado's return, a matter on which Washington has expressed skepticism. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the acting authorities set a date for the presidential elections after the October 22 mobilization? Will María Corina Machado be able to return to Venezuela, and under what safety conditions? When will the political prisoners whose release the call demands obtain full freedom? --- EPM analysis --- Machado left the country in December 2025 to travel to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but she did not arrive in time and the award was collected by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa. Her call also recalls the victory of July 28, 2024, in elections from which she was excluded and in which Edmundo González stood as the opposition candidate. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, this Thursday's call focuses on the right issue, the right of Venezuelans to elect their president on a certain and verifiable date. Without an electoral timetable there is no complete transition, and without full freedom for political prisoners there is no fair competition either. The civic strength Machado asks people to show can press for both goals if it remains peaceful, broad and sustained across the whole country in the coming weeks ahead.
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