Henrique Capriles, Venezuelan opposition figure, launched his third presidential candidacy on Wednesday after receiving the support of his party to participate in the opposition primaries which will nominate the rival of Nicolas Maduro in 2024. “We have a
candidate to the presidency and it is Henrique Capriles!”
said the president of the Primero Justicia party, Maria Beatriz Martinez, during a press conference in which Henrique Capriles did not take part.
A national party rally will proclaim him candidate on Saturday, she added.
“Administrative irregularities”
Capriles won an internal party election hands down, and will stand in the opposition primaries scheduled for October 22.
For now, Capriles, 50, who ran against late former president Hugo Chavez in 2012 and against Maduro a year later, is, like many opposition figures, ineligible.
He was sentenced in 2017 to 15 years for alleged
"administrative irregularities"
when he was governor of the state of Miranda, neighboring Caracas, between 2008 and 2017.
"The question of disqualifications is a reality (...) it is one of the great challenges that we have in front of us"
, recognized Maria Beatriz Martinez.
“I am convinced that Maduro (…) will have to rectify and do the right thing”
.
The opposition has always refuted the ineligibility of its executives, accusing justice of being under the orders of power.
The eligibility of all opposition figures is one of the crucial points of the negotiations - often interrupted - which have been going on for years in Mexico between power and opposition.
The opposition wants to ensure that all candidates can present themselves.
Dialogue in Mexico has been paralyzed since November in the