Venezuela’s main opposition bloc agrees on candidate to challenge Maduro in presidential election

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s main opposition coalition agreed Friday to unite behind former diplomat Edmundo González as its challenger to President Nicolás Maduro in this summer’s election, acting one day before the deadline to formalize its candidate.

The decision was reached unanimously by the 10 parties in the Unitary Democratic Platform, Omar Barboza, the coalition’s executive secretary, said after a five-hour meeting that included discussions of other possible candidates.

The bloc had been allowed to provisionally register González on March 26 after the government came under a wave of criticism when opposition leaders said they were blocked from registering their candidate of choice. Saturday was the deadline to make his candidacy final.

The opposition group needed to replace its first candidate, María Corina Machado, who easily won a primary organized by the bloc in October but was barred by the government from running after the ruling party-controlled State Comptroller’s Office disqualified her from holding public office for 15 years.