Venezuelan opposition leader arrested

CARACAS, Venezuela – Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez emerged from days of hiding and surrendered to police before thousands of supporters Tuesday, saying he hopes his arrest awakens Venezuela to the corruption and economic disaster caused by 15 years of socialist rule.

Speaking with a megaphone to more than 10,000 people, Lopez said that he didn’t fear going to jail to defend his beliefs and constitutional right to peacefully protest against President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

“If my jailing serves to awaken a people, serves to awaken Venezuela … then it will be well worth the infamous imprisonment imposed upon me directly, with cowardice, by Nicolas Maduro,” Lopez told the sea of supporters who were dressed in white to symbolize nonviolence. Venezuela’s red, yellow and blue flag hung from his shoulders.

Lopez was taken to a military base outside the capital. His Popular Will party says he was expected to appear before a civilian judge today on charges that include homicide and inciting violence during protests last week in which three people were killed as government forces clashed with protesters.

The threat of more violence hung over Tuesday’s demonstration as Maduro led a rival march to denounce what he calls a “fascist” plot to overthrow him. But Lopez’s repeated appeals for restraint, a strong police presence and heavy rain appeared to calm emotions, and there were no reports of major violence in the capital.

A serious outburst was reported in Valencia, the third largest city where opposition demonstrators clashed with National Guard troops. Enzo Scrano, a mayor of one of the districts that make up the city and a member of an opposition party, said 11 protesters were wounded, including at least three with bullet wounds fired by unknown gunmen on motorcycles. One woman was shot in the head and was in critical condition, he said.

After a short speech, Lopez descended from a statue of 19th century Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, and waving a flower over his head walked a few feet to a police line, where he turned himself in to face what supporters say are trumped-up charges.

His fist raised in defiance, Lopez was pulled into an armored vehicle and driven away. A cordon of heavily armed police blocked supporters from marching downtown as they had originally planned.

In Washington, the State Department on Tuesday said allegations that the U.S. is helping to organize protests are “baseless and false” and said it was evaluating what retaliatory action to take for the diplomats’ expulsion. Maduro has expelled American diplomats twice before.

Hundreds of students have spent the past week in the streets of Caracas alternating between peaceful protests by day and pitched battles with police at night in unrest fed by hardships that include rampant crime, 56 percent inflation and shortages of basic goods.