Venezuela's Opposition Popular Will Party Selects New Candidate To Replace Guaido

BUENOS AIRES (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th May, 2023) Venezuela's opposition party Popular Will (Voluntad Popular) says it has selected a new candidate for the October primaries, instead of opposition figure Juan Guaido, who has left for the United States.

"After the persecution of our brother Juan Guaido, the question arose as to whether we should go with our own candidate or support someone from outside ... the EFA (Federal meeting of activists) decided that our brother Freddy Superlano, currently the national political coordinator, will be the standard bearer in this crusade," Voluntad Popular said on Twitter on Friday.

Venezuela's opposition parties will hold their primaries in October of this year, to select a candidate who will lead the opposition in the presidential election in 2024. In March, The Popular Will party selected Guaido as their candidate for the primaries.

In April, Guaido, who proclaimed himself interim president of Venezuela in 2019 but was stripped of this role by his allies in December 2022, announced that he had departed for the United States, after crossing into Colombia from Venezuela on foot. The opposition leader said that he would continue to fight against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

In January 2019, Venezuela was plunged into a political crisis when the former head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Juan Guaido, proclaimed himself interim president in a bid to oust re-elected President Nicolas Maduro from power.

The United States and most Western countries endorsed Guaido and imposed crippling sanctions on Venezuela, while Russia, China, Turkey, and several other nations have been supporting Maduro.