Opposition leader faces charges in tense Venezuela

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Violence is heating up in Venezuela as an opposition leader faces criminal charges for organizing a rally that set off escalating turmoil in the oil-rich, but economically struggling country.

After a chaotic night, with gunfire echoing through the streets of many neighborhoods, a judge ruled early Thursday that there is enough evidence to hold Leopoldo Lopez, who dramatically surrendered to authorities before thousands of cheering supporters this week, on charges that include arson and criminal incitement stemming from a massive Feb. 12 rally.

David Smolansky, a mayor of a district in Caracas and member of the Popular Will party of Lopez, said the leader's arrest and an aggressive manhunt for two other party members show that Venezuela is suffering the harshest wave of political persecution in decades.

"If this isn't a totalitarian system then I don't know what can explain what is happening in this country," Smolansky said at a news conference Thursday.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/opposition-leader-faces-charges-tense-venezuela-135246933.html

[EX500rider]

1. BBC opinion piece had a pretty harsh view of it:

"If you doubted that Maduro was presiding over a rotting Potemkin democracy - kangaroo courts packed with loyalists, a neutered media, violent street gangs beholden to the government - witness his Mussolini-on-the-piazza performance yesterday, when he announced Lopez's arrest in front of a crowd of regime loyalists,"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-26279644

"Maduro told the assembled that President of the National Assembly (and the one of the country’s most powerful and recognizable chavistas) Diosdado Cabello had personally driven Lopez to jail, in a bizarre, professional wrestling-type victory lap for the regime: “At this moment, Diosdado Cabello is driving his car and taking Leopoldo López to a jail outside Caracas," Maduro announced, assuring his supporters of "the surrender of the political chief of the Venezuelan fascist right wing, already in the hands of justice.”

Trying to picture the reaction here if in 2008 RW goons had fired on a Obama speech/march and a riot broke out and then Bush II had Obama arrested and then announced the arrest to cheering supporters from his balcony while Cheney drove him to prison charged with murder and terrorism. I am guessing quite a few less supporters of that.

[joshcryer]

2. For the record, that is the BBC quoting The Daily Beast.

It would have been shocking for the BBC to have said that themselves!

[EX500rider]

3. Indeed..

...and before anybody jumps in with the "But he's a US stooge fascist etc" I don't really care of he is the leader of the local Nazi party, when the ruling government arrests a popular opposition leader they need reasons that don't look trumped up.

[joshcryer]

4. Indeed.

Even if your hypothetical was reversed we wouldn't be for it.

Lets be clear though, if the charges were legit we would back the full arm of the law. For instance there is a credible case against Bush for war crimes. If the case went forward we would back it.