Henrique Capriles

Henrique Capriles Radonski (Caracas, July 11, 1972) is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer, leader of the Primero Justicia party and former governor of the Miranda State. Candidate for the presidency of the Republic on two occasions.

He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, with postgraduate studies at the same university and at the Central University of Venezuela, where he obtained specializations in Economic Law and Tax Law respectively. He worked as a public official in the National Integrated Customs and Tax Administration Service (SENIAT), the entity in charge of tax collection for the State and in the private area in various legal firms in Caracas.

At 25 years of age he was elected deputy to the Congress of the Republic for the state of Zulia, later named by consensus vice president of Congress and president of the Chamber of Deputies between 1999 and 2000, becoming the youngest Venezuelan to hold those positions. positions in the democratic history of the country, until the entry into force of the unicameral National Assembly.

He was elected mayor of the Baruta municipality of the Metropolitan District of Caracas on July 30, 2000 with 62.99% of the votes, re-elected in 2004 with 78.83%. Later he ran with the support of all opposition political parties in the 2008 regional elections for the position of Governor of the state of Miranda, defeating the ruling party Diosdado Cabello on November 23, 2008, with 53.11% of the votes. He was re-elected to office for the immediate term at the end of 2012 with 51.83%.

After the events of April 2002, he was linked to the siege of the Cuban embassy and charged by the National Prosecutor's Office for crimes related to the violation of international principles. He was detained for four months in the Helicoide in Caracas and acquitted of all charges in 2006.

During 2012 he announced his presidential aspiration and presented himself as a pre-candidate in the primary elections held by the Democratic Unity Roundtable, to choose the opposition's standard bearer for the 2012 presidential election. The primaries were held on December 12. February 2012, being favored with 62.54% of the total votes, about 1.9 million votes. After several months of campaigning and with the support of thirty political parties, the elections were held on October 7, 2012, obtaining 44.31% of the votes compared to 55.07% for his opponent, Hugo Chávez.. In the regional elections of December 2012, he was reelected as governor of Miranda with 52% against Elías Jaua. After Chávez's death, he is again a candidate in the early elections of 2013.

On April 14, the presidential election was held, where Capriles obtained 49.12% of the votes, with a difference of 1.49% below his main adversary, Nicolás Maduro, who was elected. After an electoral campaign defined as "unequal" and the elections, Capriles did not recognize the results and demanded that the CNE audit all the boxes, tally records and voting notebooks, alleging that strong irregularities had occurred during the process.. The electoral body refused to carry out the audit under the conditions demanded by the opposition. Subsequently, Capriles' campaign command challenged the electoral process before the Supreme Court of Justice, however, it declared the request "inadmissible." The challenge was presented in international bodies such as the IACHR and the Human Rights Commission of the UN.

In 2017 he was disqualified by the Comptroller's Office from holding political office for 15 years, and unable to run for re-election as governor, his term ended in October of that same year. In the 2023 Unitary Platform primary elections he is again a candidate for Primero Justicia, but he withdraws from the race less than two weeks before due to his political disqualification and low numbers in the polls.

Family and studies

Henrique Capriles Radonski was born on July 11, 1972 in Caracas. Her mother, Mónica Cristina Radonski Bochenek, comes from a Russian-Polish Jewish family that survived the Nazi Holocaust. Her father, Henrique Capriles García, descends from the family of the hero of Latin American independence, Simón Bolívar, and in turn descends distant from a family of Sephardic Jewish businessmen from Curacao. Both families are linked to the country's business and productive sector, which includes media, industries, entertainment, services and real estate. His maternal grandparents, Andrés Radonski and Lili Bochenek, emigrated to Venezuela in 1947 from Poland. Andrés Radonski was an engineer active in the film business in Poland; He opened his first movie theater several years later, in the eastern city of Puerto La Cruz. The company operated under the name Radonski Circuit. It merged in 1998 with Venefilms and Grupo Blanco to create the largest cinema chain in the country, Cinex. He is also a descendant of relatives who operated the media conglomerate, Cadena Capriles.

He graduated from high school at El Peñón Associated Educational Institutes (IEA) in Caracas. Later he studied law at the Andrés Bello Catholic University, where he obtained the law degree in 1994 and continued specializing in Economic Law at the same university until 1997. He also began postgraduate studies in tax law at the University Central Venezuela.

Prior to obtaining his undergraduate degree, he worked at the National Integrated Customs and Tax Administration Service (SENIAT). She also participated in several courses at the IBFD International Tax Academy in Amsterdam (Netherlands), at the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrators in Viterbo (Italy) and at Columbia University in New York (United States).

He was a member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA), as well as the World Association of Young Jurists and the Tax Committee of the Venezuelan American Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Venamcham).

He worked at the firms Nevett & Mezquita Abogados and in Hoet, Peláez, Castillo & Duque and in family businesses, mainly in the companies of his maternal family, Radonski Bochenek.

Political career

President of the Chamber of Deputies

Henrique Capriles was elected as a deputy of the Copei party for the state of Zulia to the Congress of the Republic of Venezuela in the 1998 parliamentary elections. At that time, Venezuela had a bicameral legislative branch. He was appointed by consensus president of the Chamber of Deputies and Vice President of Parliament. That made him the youngest Venezuelan to hold those positions. However, with the dissolution of the National Congress by the National Constituent Assembly of 1999, he had to cease his legislative exercise.

In 2000 he founded the political party Primero Justicia together with a group of young people and left his original party Copei. Since then he was part of the National Directorate of the party, he was Deputy National Coordinator, a position he held until 2008, when By party statutes, upon holding public office, he had to separate from the party leadership.

Mayor of Baruta

In 2000 he was elected mayor of the Baruta municipality, a region whose political-administrative influence corresponds to the state of Miranda, but which is also part of the Metropolitan District of Caracas (capital of Venezuela). He held this position for two consecutive periods: in the 2000 elections he had more than 60% of the votes.

In 2000, at the beginning of his administration, the Baruta municipality registered 4,705 annual crimes, in 2007 (at the end of his administration) it registered only 976 annual crimes. Within his government program, the urban infrastructure and improvements to the historic center of the town of Baruta, as well as other public places, were strengthened, 80% of the municipality's roads were recovered. In the health area, a network of outpatient clinics was built that provided an average of 100,000 free consultations annually.^{[appointment required]}

In the area of roads, he developed one of the most controversial projects during his administration, the plan called Pico y Placa, launched in 2007. However, six months after its start, the plan was annulled through a precautionary measure admitted by the Administrative Litigation Court, considering that the right to free movement guaranteed in the National Constitution was restricted.

Mayor re-elected

In 2004 he was confirmed in office with almost 80% of the vote in his favor. While serving as mayor of Baruta, he was detained for four months in Helicoide, for a series of alleged crimes related to the siege of the Cuban embassy in Caracas, in the jurisdiction of the Baruta parish. Also during that period, the controversial arrests made by the Baruta police of the Minister of the Interior Ramón Rodríguez Chacín and the then deputy Tarek William Saab, who enjoyed parliamentary immunity, took place. These events occurred during the 2002 coup d'état. which briefly removed President Hugo Chávez from power.

First governorship of the state of Miranda

In 2008, a campaign called "Something good is going to happen in Miranda" began, which ended with the launch of his candidacy for his Primero Justicia party in the city of Los Teques on March 30, 2008. Months later he was supported by the rest of the political parties opposing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and days later he would separate from his position as mayor of Baruta to develop his campaign for the Governorate of Miranda. In the regional elections of November 2008, Diosdado Cabello, official candidate and former Executive Vice President of the Republic, lost the Governorate of Miranda to the mayor of Baruta. Later that same month, Cabello was chosen by President Hugo Chávez to hold the Public Works portfolio.

In 2012, at the end of his first term as governor, 42 schools were built and more than 500 restored under his mandate. The state of Miranda currently has approximately 700 schools. On June 6, 2012, Henrique Capriles separated from his position as governor of Miranda, in order to begin his campaign towards the presidential elections of October 7, 2012., leaving Adriana D'Elia, who held the position of Secretary General of the Government, in charge.

2012 presidential campaign

On May 3, 2011, Henrique Capriles announced his intention to participate in the primary elections of February 12, 2012 to define the presidential candidate who will face Hugo Chávez in the presidential elections of October 2012. In this sense, on October 12, 2011, he officially launched his campaign to compete in the elections, an event that took place at the José Joaquín Papa Carrillo Gymnasium (also known as Parque Miranda) in the city of Caracas, where hundreds of people were present..

On November 2, 2011, he made his pre-candidacy official for the primaries of the Mesa de la Unidad, with the support of the parties PODEMOS, Patria Para Todos and La Causa R, as well as that of his own party.

According to surveys carried out in October 2011, Henrique Capriles was the opposition candidate with the greatest popular support, followed by Leopoldo López (former mayor of the Caracas municipality of Chacao), who was disqualified by the Venezuelan State until 2014; and Pablo Pérez (governor of the state of Zulia).

However, since November 14, 2011, the polls began to change in favor of other candidates, thus giving rise to a variation in results in the polls, due to the contrast of ideas of the candidates in a series of debates. While some surveys give some candidates as leaders and others with less than 10%, others put candidates who previously did not exceed that figure as leaders, as is the case of Diego Arria. On January 24, 2012, Leopoldo López expressed that he was declining his candidacy in favor of Henrique Capriles.

Elected opposition candidate

On February 12, 2012, he was elected candidate of the Democratic Unity Roundtable for the presidential elections of October 7 of this year, obtaining 1,913,190 (62.54%) votes out of a total of 3,059,024 (100% of votes counted).

On 16 February 2012, the electoral commission of the Bureau of Democratic Unity reported that the number of votes continues to increase due to the counting of votes from abroad, the last figure is 3,079,284, with the latter counting, Henrique Capriles reached 1 911,648 votes.

On June 6, 2012, he left the Governorate of the State of Miranda, to be able to register with the National Electoral Council (CNE) as a candidate for the presidential elections. Since June 5, the position of governor of the Miranda State has been held by Adriana D'Elia. On June 10, 2012, she registered with the National Electoral Council (CNE) as an official candidate with a massive march through Caracas, estimated by some experts, at more than a million people.

On October 7, 2012, he lost the presidential elections against the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, who obtained 55% of the votes, while Capriles obtained 44.3% of the votes. Although It was a clear defeat, the difference of 11% between Chávez and Capriles was the smallest difference between the re-elected president and any of the adversaries who would have faced him in four presidential elections. Capriles recognized the results after the announcement of the first official bulletin. His candidacy would have obtained victory in only 2 of the 23 states: Táchira and Mérida.

Second governorship of the state of Miranda

Days after the electoral defeat of October 7, 2012, Henrique Capriles decided together with his political team and party colleagues to go for reelection for the governorship of the state of Miranda, given the withdrawal of Carlos Ocariz, nominee of the Table of the Democratic Unity to this entity. In a campaign in which the opposition sector found itself especially unmotivated after the defeat in the presidential elections, and apathy because the elections were close to Christmas, Capriles carried the message of continuing to fight for the values that more than 6.7 million Venezuelans had supported 7-O and that it had to be consolidated by voting for the Unidad candidates in the 23 entities of the country.

On December 16, in an election day marked by high abstention, the opposition obtained only three governorships, however Capriles defeated Elías Jaua (one of Chávez's closest collaborators and vice president before assuming the candidacy for the Miranda state governorate) obtaining 583,660 votes (51.83%) compared to 538,549 (47.82%). Capriles was re-elected in office.

Despite his victory in the governorship, he was not able to maintain the parliamentary majority that he had in the previous period in the Legislative Council of the State of Miranda, which became the majority of the PSUV, Elías Jaua's party.

2013 presidential campaign

After the death of President Hugo Chávez on March 5, 2013, the National Electoral Council of Venezuela called new elections for April 14, 2013. The Democratic Unity Roundtable offered Capriles to be the sole candidate again. of the opposition to face this time the Chavista candidate, President (E) Nicolás Maduro, who assumed power according to a ruling by the TSJ that allowed Chávez to begin his presidential term without being sworn in.

Capriles, after a few days, accepted, saying that if the people wanted him to fight again, that would be the case, he chose the governor of the State of Lara Henri Falcón and the mayor Carlos Ocariz to accompany him in his campaign command, baptized this time as "Simón Bolívar." President Nicolás Maduro received alleged complaints that the "ultra-right" had plans against Henrique Capriles, so he ordered SEBIN to protect him.

Henrique's campaign was forced to travel the entire country for the second time, according to the opponents, they were facing not only one party, but the entire PSUV government and the national resources that they used to strengthen their Campaign. Capriles denounced on several occasions that the national media were forced not to show their activities due to the censorship promoted by the government, which according to him this led them to other methods to transmit their message, social networks and international media.. On April 14, 2013, one of the closest elections in the country's memory took place. According to the CNE, Henrique Capriles lost to Nicolás Maduro by a difference of 224,742 votes, equivalent to 1.49% of the votes, according to official results.

Ignorance of the election results

On the same day of the presidential election at night, Capriles ignored the official bulletin issued by the CNE and called for a total recount of the votes, since according to his campaign command at least 3,500 irregularities had been detected during request that was also made by the rector of the CNE Vicente Díaz, and which was supported by the governments of Spain, France, United States, Paraguay, and the secretary general of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza. Maduro, At first he accepted the audit proposed by the opposition.

Capriles formally presented his request on April 17, with all the corresponding complaints and the request for full verification of the minutes; The CNE met for hours that same day, until accepting the "second phase" verification of 46% of the voting boxes that had not been randomly audited at first. This audit, however, was not endorsed by Capriles, arguing that The same "should have been carried out together with a review of the voting notebooks", for which the process was challenged before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).

On June 11, 2013, the CNE announced the completion of the audit of 100% of the votes cast, one of the 18 audits that were carried out throughout the process, the results confirmed Maduro's victory, since presented a 0.02 percent error, which the CNE justified with the clarifications placed in the minutes. The TSJ in a ruling announced on August 7, 2013 by the magistrate and president of the judiciary Gladys Gutiérrez, announced that They unanimously declared all challenges (at least 10) to the results of April 14, 2013 inadmissible. They argued, among other aspects, lack of evidence, and the presentation of generic and imprecise arguments.

On September 9, 2013, the challenge to the elections was presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), one day before Venezuela's departure from the mechanism became effective. The report was delivered to the organization by from the lawyer and member of the MUD Ramón José Medina who for his part said: “We hope that those elections, which were fraudulent elections, be annulled and repeated.” The Venezuelan opposition will present another appeal before the Human Rights Commission of the UN in Geneva.

Political crisis in Venezuela in 2013

Henrique Capriles called for a demonstration called "cacerolazo" in rejection of the proclamation of Nicolás Maduro as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The call was made at a press conference to be held on the night of April 15, 2013 with the intention of demanding a new vote count. In response to these demonstrations, on a national radio and television network to the cacerolazos, Nicolás Maduro called on his followers to make a "cohetazo", referring to fireworks.

As requested by Henrique Capriles Radonski, the opposition responded with a bang accompanied by honking horns in the streets, while supporters of Chavismo and the opposition exchanged accusations regarding the tight results of the elections. Incidents occurred in different parts of the country with reports of burning of party headquarters, attempts to intimidate figures from the ruling party and acts of violence.

Likewise, the quartering or availability of state and municipal police officers was extended, which remained under the control of the Strategic Operational Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces. In total, there were nine deaths. In In the following days Capriles called on his followers to protest peacefully and without falling into provocations from the Government.

Rejection of “La Salida” and the 2015 parliamentarians

In the 2015 parliamentary elections, the MUD won the elections, obtaining a qualified majority with 112 deputies. On December 26, 2015, in an interview with the newspaper Tal Cual, Henrique assured that there was no room in the National Assembly for a « second part exit. Indicating that “La Salida” had to be included in the great national failures, such as the strike, which gave the government a narrative for a year. He indicated that if they had taken that path they would not have had the victory of 6-D. In that interview he also commented that he was not going to disqualify anyone. In turn, he indicated that he was not competing with Leopoldo López, saying that they were aiming for different things and that Leopoldo López's aspiration for the presidency would be legitimate. He pointed out that at that moment there was no need to talk about candidates, that what mattered was unity.

The Force of Change and political disqualification

In April 2017 he was disqualified by the Comptroller's Office from holding political office for 15 years. The General Comptroller's Office of the Republic reported in a statement that Capriles received the reprimand "for incurring alleged illegal offenses" such as "not presenting the local budget before the state Legislative Council, agreeing to international agreements without authorization to do so, and signing contracts for the Government of Miranda with companies without complying with the regulations."

In May 2017 Capriles was detained at the Maiquetia International Airport and immigration annulled his passport, preventing him from leaving the country. On September 11, there was speculation that Capriles registered the political formation called "The Force of Change" before the CNE, as part of his relaunch in Venezuelan politics, despite being active in Primero Justicia, which presumably sealed his departure from the political formation, since if not, he would be incurring the so-called double militancy. In this regard, hours later Capriles would speak out denying that he was separating from said formation.

Negotiations for the restitution of the Primero Justicia board

On June 16, the TSJ intervened in the Primero Justicia party, appointing an ad hoc board of directors to carry out a process of restructuring it. After conversations with the government, it managed to get the The Supreme Court of Justice annulled the ruling that appointed José Brito as ad hoc secretary of the Primero Justicia party, but its political image was damaged.

Having his party restored, on September 4, 2020, Capriles announced his participation in the December parliamentary elections. Faced with this fact, the opinion of the opposition turned against participation without the necessary guarantees, however On the 30th of that month, Capriles announced that he would not participate in the parliamentary elections of December 2020 until the elections were postponed for six months so that international observers from the European Union could participate.

Regional elections 2021

In May, Capriles Radonski and former mayor Carlos Ocariz promote the internal debate on whether they should participate in the elections. On August 12, they call for participation in the regional elections. While he supported the beginning of a dialogue with the government in Mexico City.

2024 presidential candidacy

Capriles presented his pre-candidacy for the primary elections of the opposition to Chavismo, with the intention of participating in the presidential elections of 2024. However, on October 8 he announced the withdrawal of his candidacy to "facilitate an option that can materialize the objective (of a political change in 2024)."

Legal problems

Siege of the Cuban embassy in Caracas

On April 12, 2002, opponents of President Chávez began to appear at the embassy, following the false rumor that Diosdado Cabello (then vice president of Venezuela) was a refugee there. Before noon, Chávez opponents began vandalizing nearby vehicles and cutting off water, gas and electricity service. The Cuban ambassador, Germán Sánchez Otero, declared that about three hours after the violent events began, Capriles entered the embassy and asked to come in to join the dialogue already begun with the apparent leaders of the opposition crowd, inside the embassy. According to Ambassador Sánchez, after allowing him access, Capriles asked him to inspect the embassy to ensure that there were no Chavista officials sheltered inside. The Cuban diplomat flatly refused to allow this inspection.

The National Prosecutor's Office accused Capriles of having violated international principles by entering the embassy and requesting an inspection of the building. Capriles' defense assured that Capriles had entered to try to mediate between the Cuban ambassador and the anti-Chavista protesters, in order to stop the violent incidents outside the embassy. On December 15, 2006, the 17th Trial Court of Caracas acquitted Capriles of all charges in relation to the events at the Cuban embassy. However, in November 2008, the trial was reopened.

Budget items

Capriles announced on February 29, 2016 that the Comptroller General of the Republic had initiated an investigation into budget items of the government of the state of Miranda, where he is head. It refers to items from the years 2011, 2012 and 2013, and involves the governor and four other officials, including representative Adriana D'Elia, who was Secretary of the Interior. Capriles comments that the investigation is a "political retaliation" that seeks to "silence dissident voices" by mentioning the recall referendum of Nicolás Maduro. The deputy of the National Assembly for the PSUV, Elías Jaua, stated that Capriles had to be arrested and "put in a straitjacket" because, according to Jaua, he threatens the peace of Venezuela. In In 2017, he was politically disqualified by the Comptroller's Office from holding any public office for a period of 15 years. Subsequently, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issues a circular authorizing Capriles to occupy these positions. The Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, said that "the only one he disqualifies is the people and through elections." This is a typical measure of a dictatorship that violates civil and political rights.

Odebrecht Case

In 2017 Capriles was accused by one of the directors of Odebrecht of having received illegal financing for his 2012 presidential campaign through the company, being reported to the Prosecutor's Office by politician Luis Tellerías due to these events. Capriles denied the accusations.