Machado has described the decision to bar her – upheld by Venezuela’s Supreme Court – as illegitimate, unjustified and unconstitutional. From left: Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, and Urrutia's wife Mercedes Lopez wave during their campaign closing rally in Caracas on July 25, 2024, ahead of Sunday's presidential election. CNN: In the economy, your plan is to privatize most Venezuelan public assets, especially in terms of health, oil and education. I do believe in public education, but I do believe that you have to create incentives so the public education can be as competitive and with the same degree of excellence that you have in private education. But you don’t need to own the companies directly for the country to benefit from it.

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Persons: María Corina Machado –, Nicolás Maduro, Machado, Hugo Chávez, Chávez, –, Edmundo González, Maria Corina Machado, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Mercedes Lopez, Federico Parra, doesn’t Organizations: Caracas CNN —, Venezuela, Venezuela’s, CNN International, Getty, CNN, Venezuelan Locations: Caracas, Congress, Venezuelan, AFP, Venezuela, Americas