Venezuela arrests two top opposition leaders

[Bacchus4.0]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-increasingly-isolated-deadly-vote-162531329.html


Caracas (AFP) - The Venezuelan intelligence service arrested two prominent opposition leaders early Tuesday, their relatives said, a day after a vote to choose a much-condemned assembly that supersedes parliament.

Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma were both already under house arrest when they were picked up by the intelligence service known by its in acronym Sebin, the wife of Lopez and children of Ledezma said separately.

The two men are Venezuela's most high profile opposition leaders. Both had called for a boycott of Sunday's vote for a so-called and all-powerful constituent assembly tasked with rewriting the constitution.

Both of their families said they held President Nicolas Maduro, the driving force behind the vote, responsible for the leaders' lives.

[GatoGordo]

1. Lately, local mayors have been disappearing... Maduro blames "right wing terrorists"

... and he says, "We don't have them. Don't blame us! The kidnappers are government impostors funded by the United States!" Diosdado Cabello said previously that the Maduro government couldn't be held responsible for Lopez' safety while under house arrest...

Tweet from Lopez' wife, Lilian Tintori:

#URGENTE se acaban de llevar a Leopoldo de la casa. No sabemos donde está ni a dónde lo llevan. Maduro es responsable si algo le pasa. (Trans: They just carried Leopoldo out of the house. We don't know where he is or where he's taking him. Maduro is responsible if anything happens to him.)

Tweet from Antonietta Ledezma:

@Nicolasmaduro eres responsable d la vida d mi padre @alcaldeledezma exigimos saber dónd lo tienen secuestrado! Ayúdenme a difundir porfavor (Trans: Nicolas Maduro, you are responsible the life of my father, Mayor Ledezma We demand to know where have kidnapped him! Help me spread please)

I fail to understand how any Democrat could support this regime.

[Eugene]

2. Court says 2 Venezuela opposition leaders back to prison

Source: Associated Press

Court says 2 Venezuela opposition leaders back to prison

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
17 minutes ago

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Two of Venezuela’s leading opposition figures were taken from their homes in the middle of the night by state security agents on Tuesday in President Nicolas Maduro’s government’s first moves against prominent enemies since a widely denounced vote granting the ruling party nearly unlimited powers.

The Venezuelan Supreme Court said in a statement that Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma had violated the terms of their house arrest by criticizing the government in messages released on social media in recent days.

The court, which is controlled by Maduro allies, also said that it had received “reports from official intelligence sources” that the two men had been planning to flee.

Relatives and allies of Lopez and former Caracas Mayor Ledezma earlier reported on social media that both had been detained. Lopez’s wife posted what appeared to be video of him being taken from their home after midnight.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/1c0eb98cbba243e0b3e256d14830a8ff/Court-says-2-Venezuela-opposition-leaders-back-to-prison

[GatoGordo]

3. History repeating itself

"Two of Venezuela’s leading opposition figures were taken from their homes in the middle of the night by state security agents on Tuesday in President Nicolas Maduro’s government’s first moves against prominent enemies since a widely denounced vote granting the ruling party nearly unlimited powers."

Beware the Night of the Long Knives...