Venezuela’s opposition party Primero Justicia has expelled six senior members, including former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, over their decision to contest upcoming legislative and regional elections in May—an act the party decried as a betrayal of the unified anti-government front, EFE reported.

The April 14 announcement marks a major rupture within the fractured opposition. Capriles, a founding figure of centre-right Primero Justicia who ran as the main anti-Chavista candidate in 2012 and 2013, was removed alongside Tomás Guanipa, Amelia Belisario, Ángel Medina, Pablo Pérez, and Juan Requesens. 

The leadership accused them of defying a party resolution that ruled out participation in the upcoming May elections, citing the contested 2024 presidential results that saw Nicolás Maduro re-elected amid widespread allegations of electoral fraud.

Party officials said the group had acted in direct contradiction to the strategy endorsed by the main opposition coalition, Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), led by former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado.

The elections, they argued, were engineered to lend legitimacy to Maduro’s administration and marginalise dissent.

Primero Justicia also denounced what it described as undisclosed negotiations between the expelled members and the Maduro regime, claiming the talks resulted in favourable conditions—such as the lifting of political bans and the creation of a new electoral card—for Capriles and Guanipa to re-enter the political arena. 

While the PUD continues to reject what it calls a “rushed and manipulated” election process under the government-aligned electoral authority, other opposition parties—including Un Nuevo Tiempo and Movimiento Por Venezuela—have opted to participate, further fragmenting a coalition already weakened by years of internal strife and external pressure.