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Venezuela opposition leader Ledezma flees to Spain

Ersin Çelik
14:10 - 18/11/2017 Cumartesi
Update: 14:12 - 18/11/2017 Cumartesi
REUTERS
Antonio Ledezma, Venezuelan opposition leader, gives statements to the press during his arrival in Bogota, Colombia.
Antonio Ledezma, Venezuelan opposition leader, gives statements to the press during his arrival in Bogota, Colombia.

"TORTURING THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE"

Before boarding a private plane to Bogota, Ledezma said he was planning a "global pilgrimage" to fight for political freedom in Venezuela. He thanked Colombia's government, which also recently gave asylum to another high-profile Venezuelan dissident, former state prosecutor Luisa Ortega.

"It's time for him (Maduro) to step aside and allow a transition government," said Ledezma. "Maduro cannot keep torturing the Venezuelan people, he's killing Venezuelans with hunger."

The OPEC nation of 30 million people is suffering a fourth year of brutal recession, with the highest inflation in the world, shortages of food and medicines, and many people having to skip meals or suffering preventable illnesses.

Government supporters have long vilified Ledezma for supporting a brief 2002 coup and accused him of corruption.

State media repeatedly show a video where a jailed student radical lauds him as "an old fox ... the politician who most supported the resistance."

Ledezma, along with another opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, has been part of the more militant wing of Venezuela's opposition coalition. Both oppose a planned new political dialogue between the opposition and government scheduled for early December in the Dominican Republic.

"I left my flag with Maria Corina Machado, in whom I trust completely," Ledezma told reporters.

Ledezma won the Caracas mayoralty in 2008, but some of his functions and funding were quickly transferred to a new, pro-government office. Upstaged by younger opposition leaders, Ledezma was not viewed as a future presidential candidate.

Intelligence agents took him from his office in Caracas in February 2015. He was originally held at the Ramo Verde military prison before being granted house arrest.

Machado told reporters Ledezma had been under increasing pressure from authorities and had faced threats to return him to Ramo Verde due to his opposition to the political dialogue.

"We believe in real negotiations, but only ones that lead to the exit of the dictatorship," she told reporters.

#Venezuela
#Spain
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