In 2017, Roberto Picon spent six months in jail in Helicoide, the most dangerous political prison in Caracas, awaiting trial on charges of “betrayal of the motherland.” He also served as an advisor to the former opposition coalition MUD (Bureau of Democratic Unity) from 2008 to 2018.
Today, three years after his arrest, Picon is a member of Venezuela’s new National Electoral Council, the body responsible for organizing elections in the country and which has gained notoriety in recent years for being under the control of the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.
The move from a former political prisoner to a CNE member comes after the regime has signaled in recent weeks that it would like to start a dialogue with the opposition in search of a pact that could ease international sanctions against Venezuela.
Among other measures, the government released a group of leaders who were being held as political prisoners for house arrest and decided that the new electoral body, approved by the Chavism-controlled National Assembly, would include two opposition figures, one of them Picón.
These gestures were initially viewed with suspicion by the opposition, but later leaders such as Juan Guaido and Leopoldo López showed signs that they could adopt this approach as a way to deal with the economic and social crisis that gripped the country.
In this scenario, Picon argues that the opposition must take advantage of the loophole to occupy the spaces offered by the regime. In an interview with sheet from Caracas, he says his priority at work will be to fight to ensure that opposition politicians, currently banned from running in elections, can participate in the next elections.
The new CNE was chosen by the National Assembly, elected by an irregular vote. Why did you agree to create a body that is illegal at first? This is a question similar to the expression that comes first, the egg or the chicken. Yes, the assembly that appointed us is not recognized by a significant part of society and international public opinion. But I think as with this expression, there is no point in circumventing the answer. The truth is that today we have the CNE, which enables two members of civil society, from the opposition, to work alongside Chavism.
This has given rise to a political fact that can stop the inertia of the situation in which we find ourselves. The selection of new CNE members has helped some opposition leaders, such as Leopoldo Lopez or Juan Guaido, to now admit that they spoke to Maduro, and vice versa. What’s stuck so far. So I see this as a benefit for Venezuela.
What can you expect from the new CNE in the next elections for governors, mayors and legislative councils on November 21? We need Venezuelans to have faith in the CNE again, both by voters and politicians. For this, we started working in several directions.
The first is to take an inventory of all disabilities of politicians who oppose the government. List who they are and who waived their application rights. In particular, about politicians and about political parties. In some cases it was the prosecutor’s office, in others – justice, in the third – Control. With this in mind, we will make a political effort to reverse these disabilities.
The second is the refinement of the system, which will continue to be automated, with electronic voting, using the manual only in cases of failure in the first case. Overall, the assessment so far is that we have a system that is technically working well.
A campaign will then begin to make the public understand that we are in a new moment of trying to re-establish the institutional character of the country, and therefore participation is important. And finally, involve qualified international observers to participate in this process so that we can restore the image of the Venezuelan electoral system in front of the whole world.
You were part of the opposing MUD coalition, and you were even arrested for opposing the regime. What makes you think that you can now trust the decisions Maduro makes? The political conflict in Venezuela has evolved over the years into an increasingly intense existential conflict. I was the victim of this confrontation and spent six months in jail on Helicoide and then another six months at home. To date, there has not been a single hearing, not even a preliminary one, that is, one at which the prosecutor’s office should have brought charges. This is an unresolved issue, but now it does not concern me, because as the rector of CNE I have a privileged forum that can be removed only by the decision of the National Assembly.
I say that this is an existential conflict because it already presupposes that there are persecuted and disabled people, and, therefore, there is no way to change anything. For this reason, I believe that we should use all the opportunities that power gives us to look for an opportunity to compete and rebuild the country’s institutions.
But why believe that such a possibility exists now and did not exist before? Because the situation is changing. Venezuela’s economic and political isolation has weakened the regime’s strength. There is no income, export or import, and we pay a high price for the economic sanctions imposed by the countries of the international community. If this trend continues, the country’s governance will be increasingly in crisis. For this reason, the government made such decisions to urge civil society to participate in the CNE. This gives us a chance, and we must take advantage of it.
In this context of gestures aimed at improving Venezuela’s image abroad, how do you assess, for example, the confiscation of the building of El Nacional, the country’s last major independent newspaper? Of course, this is a bad sign. But this shows that the regime has internal divisions. There are those who want to improve the image of the regime, and there are those who believe that such arbitrariness can continue.
Even so, the judiciary is theoretically autonomous, and this was not a decision of the executive. Unfortunately, this happened, but we cannot interpret this as a direct order from Maduro. I think there is division in the regime, and there are currents that are more inclined to negotiate than others, and they argue within the country. What happened in the case of Nacional was a demonstration by part of the government forces. Not all government.
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Roberto Picon, 59 years old
An engineer, he was an advisor to the MUD (Bureau of Democratic Unity), an anti-Chavist alliance formed in parliament in 2008. He is one of five rectors of Venezuela’s new National Electoral Council.
