Caracas mayor’s arrest sign of broader Venezuela crackdown

CARACAS, Venezuela – Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro poured into the streets Friday to condemn the surprise arrest of Caracas’ mayor for allegedly participating in a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow his government.

The protests came a day after an armed commando unit dressed in camouflage raided Mayor Antonio Ledezma’s office and hauled him away. The detention set off a wave of spontaneous demonstrations in middle-class neighborhoods loyal to the opposition, and Friday a few hundred supporters gathered peacefully to denounce Ledezma’s “kidnapping.”

The mayor was charged with conspiracy, a crime punishable by eight to 16 years in jail, and sent Friday night to a military prison outside Caracas where other prominent government foes are being held.

The arrest of the 59-year-old mayor, one of Maduro’s fiercest critics, comes as the government struggles to avert a crisis years in the making but made worse by a recent tumble in oil prices. The president’s approval rating was hovering around 22 percent in January, the lowest in 16 years of socialist rule, as Venezuelans are forced to cope with widespread shortages, runaway inflation and a plunge in the currency that shows little sign of abating.

Maduro has taken to the airwaves to rail against his opponents, accusing them of conspiring with the United States to sabotage the oil-dependent economy, sowing chaos and carrying out a coup timed to coincide with the anniversary this month of 2014 anti-government protests that left more than 40 dead.

As part of the crackdown, he’s also seized control of a major retail chain, jailed several executives and handed more power to the military to control protests and smoke out saboteurs.

The government’s case against Ledezma appeared to stem from a public letter he wrote with two other hardliners calling for a transitional government. Maduro said the letter, published in an anti-government newspaper, was the green light for a secretly hatched putsch and on Friday said that next week he would present videos and recordings detailing U.S. Embassy involvement in the plot.

The U.S. called the accusations “baseless and false.”