According to a list of sanctioned individuals released on Wednesday in Caracas, four opponents, Carlos Ocariz, Elias Sayegh, Jose Fernandez and Tomas Guanipa, were disqualified for 15 years, and the fifth, Juan Carlos Caldera, for the next 12 months. Carlos Ocariz, Tomas Guanipa and Juan Carlos Caldera belong to the centre-right party "Primero Justicia".

The Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice ordered on 22 April, for the second time in four years, the restructuring of the party, appointing a provisional board chaired by Jose Dionisio Brito.

According to the local press, Brito was expelled from the party after a report was published in 2019 linking him to alleged acts of corruption.

The other two sanctioned individuals, Jose Fernandez and Elias Sayegh, belong to the political organisations Fuerza Vecinal and "Movimiento Cambio en Paz".

The delegation representing the Democratic Unity Platform (DUP, which brings together the main opposition parties) in the negotiations with the government of President Nicolas Maduro, has already condemned the CGR's decision, which it says is "a new offensive against the right of citizens to elect in a democratic process", ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for 28 July.

The coalition said that "the unconstitutional and illegal disqualifications made public (...) violating the right to defence and due process (...) represent the continuity of the arbitrariness carried out from power in violation also of the Barbados Agreement", signed in October 2023 between the Venezuelan government and the opposition.

The Vente Venezuela party, led by Maria Corina Machado, who had already been prevented from holding public office, expressed solidarity with those affected and accused the CGR of using disqualifications as "a weapon" to punish thought crimes.

"The regime continues to use political disqualifications as a weapon to persecute and act against those who (...) oppose in Venezuela", expressed Vente Venezuela on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

The CGR has disqualified three opposition leaders in recent years, including Maria Corina Machado, winner of the opposition primaries in October, former presidential candidate and former governor of Miranda state, Henrique Capriles Radonski, of the Primero Justicia party, and former parliament president, Juan Guaido, of the Vente Venezuela party, who in January 2019 publicly swore to assume the functions of interim president of the country until Maduro was removed from power and who is currently in exile in the US.

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