Caracas:
Ramon Velasquez, interim Venezuelan president from 1993 to 1994 and critic of the country's former dictatorship, died on Tuesday, an opposition party leader said. He was 97.
A journalist, lawyer and historian, Velasquez was chosen as head of state by Congress after Venezuela's sitting president was ousted for embezzlement.
An opponent of Venezuela's dictatorship, Velasquez was jailed on several occasions in the 1950s but rose to hold a handful of political positions under the country's subsequent democracy.
Henry Ramos Allup, secretary general of the Democratic Action Party, announced Velasquez's death on Twitter.