Venezuela arrests Oppn leaders in midnight raids

Caracas, August 1 

Venezuela’s intelligence service took two prominent opposition leaders back to prison early today, authorities said, as embattled President Nicolas Maduro moved to shore up his power after an election widely denounced as a sham.

The action, carried out in the dead of night, came one day before a new assembly elected on Sunday takes office, superseding the opposition-controlled legislature.

In a statement, the Supreme Court said Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma were sent back to prison because they had violated the terms of their house arrest by making political statements.

It said authorities acted with urgency because they had received intelligence that the pair “had a plan to flee.” The move was swiftly criticised as a “step in the wrong direction” by both the US and the European Union.

The men are two of 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.

They were picked up by the intelligence service known by its acronym Sebin, the wife of Lopez and children of Ledezma said separately.

Both of their families said they held Maduro, the driving force behind the vote, responsible for the opposition leaders’ lives.

“They just took Leopoldo away. We do not know where he is or where they are taking him,” Lopez’s wife Lilian Tintori said on Twitter. The children of Ledezma — named Victor, Vanessa and Antonietta — also said on Twitter that the intelligence service had taken away their father. — AFP

"They don’t intimidate me. The threats and sanctions of the empire don’t intimidate me for a moment. I don’t listen to orders from the empire, not now or ever ... Bring on more sanctions, Donald Trump." — Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president