Press. voanews.com
The White House says it is holding Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
"personally responsible" for the safety of two opposition leaders
seized by police in the middle of the night.
Twitter video shows intelligence agents dragging Leopoldo Lopez and
Antonio Ledezma out of their homes and shoving them into cars. Ledezma was
still in his pajamas.
The two were under house arrest for previous opposition activities. The
Venezuelan Supreme Court says "official intelligence sources" warned
that Lopez and Ledezma were planning to flee. The court said they broke the
terms of their house arrest by "political campaigning" and
"making statements to the media," encouraging protests against the
Maduro government.
Lopez's lawyer, Juan Carlos Gutierrez, denied his client violated his
house-arrest regulations. He said Lopez was only forbidden from talking about
his own case.
Lopez supporters released a video shot last week, showing him rubbing
his pregnant wife's belly and saying he would likely be arrested again.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the arrests
"unjust" and said they follow Maduro's "outrageous seizure of power
through a sham election" — a reference to Sunday's vote for an assembly to
rewrite the constitution, which is opposed by 70 percent of Venezuelans.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the opposition leaders'
arrests "very alarming." The two men each had posted videos urging
their followers to boycott Sunday's election.
Lopez and Ledezma, both former mayors, were under house arrest for
various charges. Lopez previously spent three years in jail on charges of
instigating violence during anti-Maduro street protests in 2014; Ledezma was
convicted in 2015 on charges of plotting a coup against Maduro.
Sanctions against Venezuela
The U.S. imposed sanctions Monday against Maduro for what it called his
"illegitimate" election of an assembly to rewrite the constitution.
All of Maduro's assets in the U.S. have been frozen and Americans are forbidden
from doing any business with him.
Maduro says he does not care. He raged on Venezuelan television:
"They don't intimidate me. The threats and sanctions of the empire don't
intimidate me for a moment. ... Bring on more sanctions, Donald Trump."
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino dismissed U.S. charges that Maduro is
a dictator. He said dictators do not hold elections, invoke the constitution
and work for peace to avoid civil war.
The Maduro government is determined to form the 545-member constituent
assembly.
The government said more than 8 million people cast ballots; the
opposition, which boycotted the vote, said the turnout was much lower.
Reporters on the ground in Caracas said dozens of polling places were almost
deserted Sunday.
If 8 million people did cast ballots, that would be less than half of
all registered voters. Pre-election polls showed more than 70 percent of all
Venezuelans opposed the assembly.
Details on what might be included in a new constitution are unclear.
Maduro has said it is the only way to pull Venezuela out of its severe economic
and social crisis and curtail political violence.
The opposition contended the vote was rigged in order to pack the
assembly with Maduro supporters who could dissolve the opposition-controlled
national assembly, and fire officials who disagree with the government.
Maduro's opponents are demanding early presidential elections.
Violence and protests for and against the election killed at least 10
people, bringing the total number of deaths in four months of anti-government
protests to more than 120.
The drop in global energy prices and political corruption have destroyed
Venezuela's oil-rich economy. Gasoline, medicine and such basic staples as
cooking oil, flour, and sugar are scarce, and many Venezuelans cross into
neighboring Colombia and Brazil to buy food.
Maduro has blamed the country's woes on what he calls U.S. imperialism
and its supporters inside Venezuela. He has warned against intervention by the
Organization of American States, saying that would surely lead to civil war.
A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says
the U.N. chief is urging Venezuelans, particularly their leaders, to make all
possible efforts to de-escalate tensions, saying the "only way forward is
a political solution."