Venezuela opposition backs Gonzalez as presidential candidate

CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuela's major opposition coalition will back Edmundo Gonzalez for president in July's election, its leadership said on Friday, after intense internal negotiations to determine who could take on President Nicolas Maduro.

The opposition has struggled to define a candidate for the July 28 contest since the South American nation's top court upheld a ban on office for the winner of the opposition primary, Maria Corina Machado. She says the ban is illegal.