Former opposition mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo Lopez, goes on trial today after six months in prison for allegedly inciting violence in Venezuela and conspiring against the government.
Early this morning Venezuelan attorney general Luisa Ortega Diaz dispatched a public attorney to Ramo Verde military prison, to check on conditions of hardline opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez’s confinement. This came in response to claims made by Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori, who told reporters last week she was denied visiting rights.
Venezuelan authorities have made a renewed offer to the opposition to join dialogue talks while the opposition’s leadership considers their next move following the dissipation of protests.
Yesterday, the far right opposition leader and former legislator Maria Corina Machado arrived at the Attorney General’s Office in Caracas to act as a witness in a high-profile investigation regarding an alleged plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.
At the G77 + China Summit held in Bolivia over the weekend, several leftist Latin American presidents gave their public backing to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and called for regional unity against what they consider an attempt at “conservative restoration” currently underway in the South American country.
Yesterday, Venezuelan attorney general Luisa Ortega Diaz announced the order for the arrest of Pedro Burelli, Ricardo Koesling and Diego Arria. They are all linked to the alleged plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro which was detailed in a series of emails seized by Venezuelan intelligence services and released by the government during the final week of May.
On Wednesday, Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) announced its decision to honor Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado with the 2014 Charles T. Manatt Democracy Award. Meanwhile in a Miami county, a teachers’ union has organized students to collect riot materials to aid anti-government protestors in Venezuela.
Several figures within the hard-line faction of the Venezuelan opposition are facing charges of conspiracy and instigation of violence in relation to their activities during the opposition’s recent unrest movement.
On Wednesday, Venezuelan authorities publicized correspondences between opposition leaders and U.S. diplomats which, they say, constitute a plan to assassinate president Nicolas Maduro and overthrow his administration.
The wives of two opposition mayors jailed for refusing to act against militant opposition street barricades have won the municipal by-elections to replace their husbands in two western Venezuelan cities.
Pro-opposition university authorities and lecturers largely closed 18 of the country’s 61 universities on Thursday. The strike was part of a protest action that coincided with fresh incidents of street violence, including an attack on the youth wing of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (JPSUV).
Foreign diplomatic representatives in Venezuela responsible for assisting the dialogue process between the Venezuelan government and opposition have reported a “re-opening” of communication between the two sides.
The rekindling of street violence follows a widely publicized press conference held by the leadership of the Democratic Unity Table (MUD), where the opposition announced their withdrawal from the dialogue talks initiated by the government.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Jorge Tovar, 24, a Venezuelan national police officer was shot dead in the neck by a sniper, according to official sources. The shooting occurred as police attempted to clear an encampment that blocked traffic set up by hardline anti-government protestors, or guarimberos, in the upperclass neighborhood of Los Palos Grandes, in eastern Caracas.
A Human Rights bill proposed by Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, which includes sanctions on the Venezuelan government, cleared its first legislative hurdle this morning after passing the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
