CARACAS, Venezuela—When President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year scheduled a presidential election for the spring, the country’s opposition called a boycott to protest a vote it saw as bound to be heavily tilted in the president’s favor.
But one former state governor, Henri Falcón, declared his candidacy anyway, a move seen as quixotic by some and treasonous by those who accuse him of legitimizing what they say will be a rigged election, citing evidence of fraud and voter intimidation in the unpopular government’s romps...