Venezuela returns opposition leader to house arrest
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has been returned to house arrest from a four-day detention amid efforts to restore calm to the country which is reeling from weeks of riots.
"They just moved Leopoldo home," his wife Lilian Tintori wrote on Twitter of the Saturday development.
The 46-year-old Lopez was first arrested in 2014 and released to house arrest last month along with another opposition leader Antonio Ledezma who was also put under house arrest on Friday.
Authorities say they ordered the house arrests because the two men had planned to either hide inside the country or flee abroad.
Their return to their families came a day after a nationwide vote which President Nicolas Maduro had called on the formation of a Constituent Assembly, tasked with rewriting the country’s constitution.
The new constitution, Madura says, will lift the country out of its economic misery, brought on chiefly by the fall in oil revenues, which Venezuela most heavily relies on.
The voting process, however, featured a US-backed opposition boycott, and riots which the government says are directed from outside.
Upon the formation, the new assembly fired Attorney General Luisa Ortega who has backed the rioters and barred her from leaving the country.
Read more:
Also on Saturday, the Mercosur group of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay which have pro-Western governments suspended Venezuela from its full membership. They alleged that the situation inside Venezuela lagged far behind democratic standards as is required by the South American economic bloc.
At least 125 people have died over the past four months in Venezuela during riots and violent demonstrations against the government.
Maduro on Friday said his country was facing an “armed insurgency,” and criticized the prosecutor’s office for failure to control the opposition-led rallies.
Iran decries US intervention in Venezuela’s internal affairs
'New chapter in cooperation': Iran, Venezuela sign new MoUs
Venezuela, Russia sign new energy, defense deals
Israel launches air strikes on Syria-Lebanon border crossing
Russia: Comprehensive deal with Iran will include defense, security ties
VIDEO | Israeli embassy shooting in Jordan leaves gunman dead, 3 police injured
VIDEO | Paris march in support of Palestine women
VIDEO | ICC issues arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister, ousted regime war minister
120 Palestinians perish as Israeli war machine keeps ravaging Gaza
VIDEO | Struggles of Palestinian women amidst war, displacement
VIDEO | Hezbollah rains attack drones down on elite Israeli brigade
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
