Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has backed a little-known diplomat to run against President Nicolas Maduro in July's election.
Machado herself is very popular, but she cannot run for president.
Edmundo González Urrutia was elected unanimously by the opposition coalition known as the PUD after days of meetings filled with lively debate.
The support of Machado, who participated in these meetings, was crucial: she is the most popular opposition figure in Venezuela and won 90% of the vote in the primaries held in October.
"We are united and strong," she said in a video posted on social media. "We have a candidate who is supported by everyone."
González Urrutia, a political analyst who previously served as Venezuela's ambassador to Argentina and Algeria, will serve as Machado's deputy.
Machado has been banned from holding public office for 15 years by courts loyal to the Maduro government. They accuse her of corruption, which she says are false accusations.
Machado tried to register a proxy, planning to continue campaigning on the sidelines and possibly jump in and run at the last minute, but election officials blocked that candidate as well.
Another last-minute candidate, the governor of the oil-rich state of Zulia Manuel Rosales, whose party is a member of the opposition alliance, withdrew from the race.
Many countries, including the United States, refused to accept the results of Maduro's 2018 victory, accusing him of fraud and a lack of transparency. This vote was boycotted by the opposition.
The United Nations estimates that almost eight million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the year after Maduro took office.
The past decade has seen a severe economic crisis marked by rampant inflation and shortages of food and medicine, plunging the population into misery. /BGNES
