Caracas mayor arrested, protester killed as Maduro’s conspiracy claims grow
Venezuela: the arrest of the opposition mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, as an alleged party to a plot to stage a coup, and the death in the westernmost state of Táchira of a young protester at the hands of a police officer, against the backdrop of more claims by President Nicolás Maduro about a continually expanding conspiracy against his government.
On 19 February agents of the state intelligence service (Sebin), raided the offices of Caracas Mayor Ledezma, a prominent figure in the more radical opposition faction La Salida (‘The Exit’) who just days earlier had been accused by President Maduro of involvement in a coup conspiracy [WR-15- 07]. After a brief spell in Sebin’s headquarters, Ledezma was transferred to the military prison of Ramo Verde, where La Salida leader Leopoldo López has been held for the past year. A BBC Mundo correspondent reported that according to witnesses Ledezma had been arrested without a court order, “a complaint made by other opposition mayors arrested during the protests against Maduro last year”.