Briefly Open to a Fair-Looking Election, Venezuela Reverses Course Again

Venezuelan officials rescinded an invitation to the European Union to observe the upcoming July 28 presidential elections, another stark sign that President Nicolás Maduro is unlikely to cede power despite allowing an opposition candidate to run against him.

After months of intensified repression by the Maduro government — which banned legitimate challengers from the ballot, jailed political opponents and cracked down on civil society — the country’s electoral authority surprised many in April when it allowed the former diplomat Edmundo González to register as an opposition candidate.

The Venezuelan government has been choked by sanctions from the United States and the European Union on the country’s vital oil industry, and some experts say Mr. Maduro allowed Mr. González to run only because it might help him sway Washington and its allies to ease up on the penalties.

The president of the council, Elvis Amoroso, said in a televised broadcast that he was rescinding the invitation until the E.U. lifted “the unilateral and genocidal coercive sanctions imposed on our people.”

“It would be immoral to allow their participation knowing their neocolonialist and interventionist practices against Venezuela,” he added.

The E.U. said in a statement that it “deeply regrets the unilateral decision” of the electoral council and called on the government to reconsider its decision.

Venezuela’s economy imploded nearly a decade ago, prompting one of the world’s largest displacements in Latin American history: More than seven million Venezuelans have abandoned the country, contributing to a northward migrant surge that has become a dominant theme in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Three polls conducted inside the country showed that a majority of