Venezuelan Election Campaign Opens Amid Persecution Claims

The government accuses the opposition of conspiring against President Nicolas Maduro, whose reelection in 2018 was rejected as illegitimate by most Western and Latin American countries (Credit: AFP)

Campaigning for July 28 presidential elections officially opened in Venezuela amid great uncertainty Thursday, with incumbent Nicolas Maduro accused of political persecution.

Maduro and opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia have both called rallies in the capital Caracas, a day after the UN rights chief warned of an "increase in threats, harassment and assaults against civil society actors, journalists, unionists and other voices considered critical."