Arrest of Caracas mayor sign of broader Venezuela crackdown

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. An armed commando unit dressed in camouflage raided Mayor Antonio Ledezma’s office late Thursday and hauled him away amid protests by his staff. The detention, recorded by security cameras, set off a wave of spontaneous demonstrations, with Venezuelans in middle-class enclaves loyal to the opposition banging pots and pans and blaring their car horns.

They took Antonio Ledezma away… They didn’t give him time to say anything.

Mitzy Capriles, wife of Antonio Ledezma, on Twitter

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. The embattled president could also be gambling that the allegations of a coup will enable him to distract attention from the mounting woes and weaken the opposition enough to allow him to prevail in legislative elections slated for later this year.

The mayor of the capitol arrested just like that? That never happens. It’s too ugly. I’m worried we’re going to see more repression.

Maria Fernandez, Caracas resident

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