Venezuelan opposition coalition says it was blocked from registering its presidential candidate

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s main opposition coalition said Tuesday that electoral authorities didn’t let them register their presidential candidate as the deadline passed, in what the group called the latest blow to democracy in the South American country.

Candidate Corina Yoris could not be registered by the midnight Monday deadline to be eligible for the July 28 election, said Omar Barboza, a representative of the U.S.-backed Unitary Platform coalition. In a video posted on X, Barboza called that “a violation of the right of the majority of Venezuelans who want to vote for change,” and demanded that the registry be reopened.

Opposition parties on Friday had named Yoris, an 80-year-old unknown newcomer and former academic, as the substitute candidate for opposition leader María Corina Machado, who won last year’s opposition-organized primary but faces a government ban on holding public office.

Latin American governments — including Guatemala, Brazil and Colombia — voiced concerns about the blocking of candidates, with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro government of “consolidating an anti-democratic system.”

Venezuela pushed back against the criticism, in particular that of neighboring Colombia, which Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said on X represented a “gross interference in matters that only concern Venezuelans.”

Maduro has so far managed to block his chief opponents from running while alternately negotiating and then reneging on minimal electoral guarantees promised to the opposition and to the U.S. government in exchange for relief from sanctions on the Venezuelan energy industry. A number of regional leaders accused the Maduro government of breaching such agreements with the opposition.

The self-proclaimed socialist leader on Monday officially launched his candidacy for a third term that would last until 2031. He did no mention Yoris by name, but blasted his would-be rival as a “puppet” of traditional elites.

Polls show that the unpopular Maduro would be likely be trounced if Venezuelan voters could choose a viable alternative.

To date, 10 candidates have registered to compete in the July elections, but none of them are connected to the main opposition coalition and several are seen as representing little threat to Maduro’s power base. Once parties register their candidate, they have until April 16 to name a substitute.

Yoris told reporters at a news conference late Monday that all her attempts to register her candidacy, both electronically and in person, had failed.

“We’ve exhausted all of the possibilities,” Yoris said. “It’s not just the name of Corina Yoris that is being denied but the name of any citizen that wants to run.”

Brazil issued a statement saying the move to block candidates was a violation of previous agreements with the Venezuelan opposition, although it added that it was opposed to sanctions on the Andean nation, which it said “only contribute to isolating Venezuela and increasing the suffering of its people.”

Longstanding American sanctions on Venezuela have been sharply criticized as not putting pressure on top level government officials, but rather worsening the plight of ordinary Venezuelans and exacerbating the migration of millions of them from their country.

The United Nations issued a statement that did not mention concerns about candidate registration but that underscored the importance of “an environment in Venezuela that is conducive to free and fair elections.”

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Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

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