Caracas (Associated Press)
About 100 supporters of
jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez rallied last week outside a
Caracas court where he had been due to hear charges blaming him for a deadly
episode of violence.
Heavy security surrounded the Palace of Justice,
blocking streets leading to the building, where the Harvard-educated economist
had been scheduled to appear after spending the night in jail.
Lopez's dramatic surrender to National Guard troops
at a protest rally recently came after two weeks of protests in the oil-rich
country against the leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro, successor to the late Hugo Chavez, is under
fire over what critics say is rampant crime, runaway inflation, high
unemployment and other economic problems.
After three people were killed in street clashes on
February 12, Maduro ordered Lopez's arrest, blaming him for the violence.
"They may hold him for a few days. If they free
him right away, it would be a sign of weakness," said Oropeza, a political
science professor at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas.
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| Caracus, Venezuela |
Oropeza said that with the arrest, the only thing
the government had achieved was to divert people's attention away from
Venezuela's economic woes and "shift debate to an area it has always
handled better -- that of political confrontation."
Lopez told thousands of his supporters, all clad in
white, that he hoped his arrest would highlight the "unjust justice"
in Venezuela. He drew an explosion of cheers from the crowds.
After delivering a brief message to his cheering
supporters, who had defied a ban on the march, he surrendered to the National
Guard.
"I present myself before an unjust justice,
before a corrupt justice," said Lopez.
"If my incarceration serves to wake up
people... it will have been worth it."
He calmly walked under escort to a National Guard
vehicle as his supporters pressed around the
Maduro ordered the expulsion of three US diplomats,
accusing them of meeting student leaders under the guise of offering them
visas.
Venezuela's relations with Washington, long strained
under Chavez, have remained sour and distrustful under Maduro, who has hewed
closely to his predecessor's socialist policies.
Venezuela is the only Non Middle Eastern country that is a
member of OPEC.
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