Options shrink for Venezuela\u2019s opposition<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n\u201cThey just took Leopoldo from home,\u201d Tintori tweeted. \u201cWe don\u2019t know where he is or where they took him. Maduro is responsible if something happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s most prominent political prisoner and former mayor of a district in Caracas, L\u00f3pez was arrested in early 2014 and handed a 13-year jail term. He became a symbol of resistance for opponents of the government, his portrait printed in bright colors on the T-shirts and flags of protesters who chant, \u201cFree Leopoldo!\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of his release, L\u00f3pez, who was forbidden from speaking to the press, issued a statement saying he was ready to return to prison \u201cfight for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roland Carre\u00f1o, a senior member of L\u00f3pez\u2019s party, confirmed on Twitter that L\u00f3pez had been taken to the Ramo Verde military prison southwest of Caracas.<\/p>\n
Also taken into government custody early Tuesday was Ledezma, former mayor of Caracas. His wife, Mitzy Capriles de Ledezma, posted a video on Twitter showing a dramatic melee as authorities entered their home and hauled him away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening, my friend,\u201d a woman in her pajamas asks a squad of masked, uninformed men in her house. The men appear to be from the government\u2019s Bolivarian Intelligence Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re taking Ledezma!\u201d another voice shouts in the background.<\/p>\n
In an interview with The Washington Post, Ledezma\u2019s wife said her husband had posted a Twitter video on Monday, despite being in house arrest, and suggested that may one reason he was hauled away.<\/p>\n
In the video, Ledezma, with a Venezuela flag in the background, called the constituent assembly vote a fraud, criticized the armed forces and rejected the government-controlled supreme court. He also critiqued the opposition for its lack of strategy.<\/p>\n
Lopez last week had also released a video on twitter, encouraging people to keep fighting and reject Sunday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne more time Nicol\u00e1s Maduro shows off his dictator-like qualities,\u201d said Mitzy Capriles de Ledezma. She insisted the move smacked of desperation, saying \u201cthe fact that Antonio is again in prison means Maduro knows he\u2019s on his way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early Tuesday, Ledezma\u2019s daughter, Oriette Ledezma, issued a video statement saying her father was \u201ckidnapped\u201d by Maduro\u2019s forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in his pajamas,\u201d she said. :We don\u2019t now where they took him. A group of masked men in camouflage took him \u2026. We make the regime responsible for his life and physical integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added, \u201cthis is for Venezuela and the rest of the world because they keep violating the human rights,\u201d<\/p>\n
Ledezma was previously arrested in December 2015. Maduro at the time said he was part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government. In May of that year, he was remitted to house arrest after receiving surgery for a hernia.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Ledezma, from the Alianza Bravo Pueblo party, was reelected as mayor. In January 2017, Maduro created a higher executive post in the city, \u201cChief the greater state of Caracas,\u201d and named pro-government official to the job.<\/p>\n
Rachelle Krygier contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Anthony Faiola, August1, 2017 CARACAS \u2014 Masked security forces staged middle-of-night raids Tuesday to haul away two leading Venezuelan opposition leaders already under house arrest, possibly signaling an expanded crackdown on dissent after widely denounced elections to boost the authoritian government. The moves against Leopoldo L\u00f3pez and Antonio Ledezma could intensify the international fallout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1857,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}