Venezuela’s Main Opposition Bloc Agrees on Candidate to Challenge Maduro in Presidential Election

HANDOUT - 16 April 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks at a virtual meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Photo: Marcelo Garcia/Prensa Miraflores/dpa
HANDOUT - 16 April 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks at a virtual meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Photo: Marcelo Garcia/Prensa Miraflores/dpa
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Venezuela’s Main Opposition Bloc Agrees on Candidate to Challenge Maduro in Presidential Election

HANDOUT - 16 April 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks at a virtual meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Photo: Marcelo Garcia/Prensa Miraflores/dpa
HANDOUT - 16 April 2024, Venezuela, Caracas: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks at a virtual meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Photo: Marcelo Garcia/Prensa Miraflores/dpa

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 Associated Press said.
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.
Maduro’s administration has cracked down on the opposition before the July 28 presidential election despite promises to pave the way to fair elections in exchange for sanctions relief. The Biden administration on Wednesday reimposed crushing oil sanctions, criticizing Maduro's moves.
The governments of Colombia and Brazil also have expressed concern, and Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo accused Maduro’s government of “consolidating an anti-democratic system.”
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil has called the criticism a “gross interference in matters that only concern Venezuelans.”
Maduro, a self-proclaimed socialist leader. officially launched his candidacy last month for a third term that would last until 2031.
The election is likely to have more than 10 candidates, but except for the main opposition coalition, none are expect to pose a threat to Maduro’s power base.



Palestinian Protest Leader Detained by US Misses Son’s Birth 

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)
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Palestinian Protest Leader Detained by US Misses Son’s Birth 

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)
Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP)

Detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil missed the birth of his son on Monday after US authorities refused a temporary release, his wife said.

A graduate student at New York's Columbia University who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza, Khalil was arrested by immigration authorities on March 8.

He was ordered deported even though he was a permanent US resident through his American citizen wife, Noor Abdalla.

Abdalla said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied a request to release Khalil temporarily for the birth of their child.

"This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud and our son suffer," she said in a statement.

"My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud's support for Palestinian freedom," she said.

She gave birth in New York. Khalil was transferred to the southern state of Louisiana in an apparent bid to find a judge sympathetic to President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Trump's advisors have accused pro-Palestinian protesters of promoting anti-Semitism and terrorism, charges the activists deny.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy.

Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review.

Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.

Immigration authorities last week arrested another Columbia University student active in the protests, Mohsen Mahdawi, as he attended an interview seeking to become a US citizen.