Leading Venezuelan opposition figure, Henrique Capriles, has been banned from seeking public office for 15 years.
Earlier this week, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto received leading Venezuelan opposition activist Lilian Tintori, the wife of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, in a policy shift that reflects Mexico's increasing assertiveness against the government of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
The district - home to many government offices - is a pro-Maduro bastion and the president's supporters were holding a "cultural, sporting and recreational rally" there.
The move, decried by his supporters and foreign governments, followed last week's short-lived Supreme Court decision to gut the opposition-controlled legislature of its last vestiges of power. Police, meanwhile, made social media posts of mugshots of protesters taken undercover and asked for information on the unidentified "generators of violence". But he has been disqualified from holding office for what the national comptroller's office call "administrative irregularities". The British embassy declined to comment, while the Polish embassy did not immediately respond.
- MIGUEL HENRIQUE OTERO: The editor of El Nacional, the last remaining national newspaper critical of the government, was barred from leaving Venezuela in 2015 after the powerful head of the socialist party, Diosdado Cabello, sued him for slander for republishing an article from the Spanish newspaper ABC accusing him of ties to drug cartels.
The government says the comptroller's investigations are part of its anticorruption efforts. The court pulled that decision back after it came under heavy criticism, but opposition leaders said the attempt to invalidate a branch of power revealed the administration's true dictatorial nature.
While heated rhetoric and exaggerated claims are favourite tactics used on both sides of Venezuela's bitter political divide, the singling out of critics in such a forceful way by Mr Maduro is frequently a prelude to legal action.
On Asia trip, Pence may fill details on N. Korea policy
Pence was given a report on North Korea's failed missile launch aboard Air Force Two en route to South Korea and talked with U.S. McMaster told Raddatz it would be in the regime's "best interest" to halt their nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Capriles lost narrowly in the 2013 election that brought Maduro to the presidency after the death of Maduro's socialist mentor Hugo Chavez.
Maduro's government says a USA -backed business elite is responsible for Venezuela's economic downturn and that it is trying to foment a coup to impose right-wing rule under the guise of peaceful protests. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. Don't then come like a sissy saying that you're a political prisoner.
Saturday's protests extended a week of unrest sparked by last week's Supreme Court decision in which it assumed the role of the opposition-led congress.
Thousands of protesters on 8 April, 2017 clashed for the fifth consecutive day with the security forces in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
Ortiz was a 19-year-old student at a local university, the local mayor's office said.
Venezuela's oil-dependent economy is suffering a brutal recession that has millions of people skipping meals amid steep inflation and low salaries.
Opposition lawmaker José Guerra, who participated in Saturday's protests, said the march was peacefully advancing on Francisco de Miranda Avenue, one of Caracas' main thoroughfares, when "tear gas bombs started raining on us".
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