2011 Venezuelan presidential candidates debate

On 14 November 2011, the first of four debates among the five opposition pre-candidates for the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election primaries was held. It was organized by the Venezuelan student movement, took place at the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) in Caracas, and was moderated by university professor Jesús María Casal. The debate preceded three other debates and the tour known as El Gran Debate ().

Background

The first Venezuelan presidential debate took place in February 1963, between candidates Rafael Caldera and Jóvito Villalba. In 1998 Hugo Chávez and Claudio Fermín held a televised debate, without the presence of candidates Henrique Salas Römer or Irene Sáez. That was the only occasion in which Chávez participated in an electoral debate.

In 2011, the participants in the debate were the opposition pre-candidates registered to compete in the primaries of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition: former ambassador Diego Arria, governor Henrique Capriles, former mayor Leopoldo López, deputy María Corina Machado, and governor Pablo Pérez.

According to El País, it was the first time in a decade that a group of Venezuelan candidates had gathered live, in a single forum, to present their government plans.

Format

The debate was organized by the Venezuelan student movement, took place at the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas, and was moderated by university professor Jesús María Casal.

The pre-candidates were given 30 seconds for their initial presentation to outline their profiles. The debate was televised and the topics chosen were those that polls had identified as the most important for voters: security, education and employment, which were to be discussed through nine questions with one minute allotted for the responses.

Debate

Opening statements

On the morning of the debate, Hugo Chávez insulted the opposition pre-candidates by comparing them to the "Horsemen of the Apocalypse", saying: "Let them have their debate over there, but they, as we already know, represent capitalism, they represent the bourgeoisie, no matter how much they try to disguise themselves," and that they "represent the worst of imperialism, they represent that fatality." He said he had "few expectations" for the debate.

The debate was preceded by a cadena nacional (mandatory radio and television broadcast), during which Chávez spoke for two and a half hours.

Diego Arria was the first pre-candidate to intervene in the debate, according to the draw for determining the order of the participants' responses. In his introduction, Arria proposed "presiding over a two- or three-year government that rescues peace for all." Henrique Capriles was the second to intervene and declared that "everything I have achieved I have achieved through the vote." Pablo Pérez said his motivation for running for the presidency was "to provide the country with social security", while María Corina Machado stated her intention to "unite a deeply divided country." Leopoldo López proposed "building a Venezuela where all rights are for all Venezuelans."

Security

Security was the first of the debate topics. The participants agreed that impunity was the country's main problem and made proposals such as improving security forces, disarmament, and an autonomous judicial system.

Capriles stated that he would seek to make prisons have a "rehabilitative" function. Pablo Pérez proposed the "professionalization" of the police and the "purging" of the judiciary and the Public Ministry, as well as the development of a disarmament policy. Pérez also stated that it was necessary to reduce the language of violence and replace it with a culture of peace. María Corina cited specific figures when speaking about crime:

Speaking about drug trafficking, Leopoldo López stressed the importance of deepening intelligence within security agencies and stated that Venezuela could not "follow the path that Mexico followed, which was to confront [the cartels] without being prepared" in terms of the judicial system, police forces and Armed Forces.

Arria criticized the Armed Forces for allowing the entry of criminals of other nationalities into the country and proposed convening a Constituent Assembly to refound the State, declaring that there could be no new government in Venezuela without dismantling Chávez's regime. Arria's pledges included the release of political prisoners, returning television channels to the air, the re-legitimization of public powers, the reduction of the constitutional term to five years, and the elimination of presidential re-election.

Employment

Capriles set himself the goal of creating 500,000 jobs per year and proposed a balance between the public and private sectors, declaring: "Public and private investment must work as a team to generate employment. A model that confiscates does not produce." Pérez promised to generate one million jobs, while María Corina spoke about "popular capitalism" and proposed moving six million jobs from the informal to the formal sector and improving conditions for investment. López promised to generate three million job positions, argued that it was necessary "to embrace young people" with employment or academic opportunities, and that to generate jobs Venezuela had to break the importing model and produce, at minimum, the food and manufactured products it consumes, and said: "We will go to the universities so that they are training centers and become linked with the productive sectors."

Education

The pre-candidates agreed on improving the salaries of public school teachers and the infrastructure of educational centers.

Closing statements

In his final intervention, Diego Arria announced that on 21 November, the following week, he would file a complaint against Chávez before the International Criminal Court.

Reactions

The moderator of the debate and also professor at the university, Jesús María Casal, announced the willingness of the Andrés Bello Catholic University to host future presidential candidate debates.

The student movement described the debate as a "resounding success." University councillor Wolfgan Villalba of the Universidad Santa María declared that "we have wanted to show that this country does have a future", while Gaby Arellano, of the University of the Andes, thanked the participants.

Subsequent debates

After the debate at UCAB, the pre-candidates undertook a tour known as El Gran Debate through the main media outlets of the time. On 4 December 2011 the debates were broadcast from the studios of Venevisión, on 17 January 2012 by the newspaper Panorama and radio stations in Zulia State, and on 23 January by Globovisión from the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas.

Aftermath

The MUD primary was held on 12 February 2012 and won by Henrique Capriles with about 62% of the vote; he became the unified opposition candidate and was defeated by Hugo Chávez in the October 2012 presidential election.