EU Believes Arrest of Venezuelan Opposition Leaders ‘Step in Wrong Direction’

English edition of Asharq Al-Awsat – the world’s premier pan-Arab daily. “Maduro is responsible if something happens”, she wrote on Twitter. He had been under house arrest since early July.

After the coup, Chavez asserted numerous times that United States government officials knew about plans for the coup and approved of them.

Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, an opposition politician and who was also under house arrest, was reportedly taken back into detention early Tuesday, according to Alianza Bravo Pueblo (Fearless People’s Alliance) deputy, Richard Blanco.

In the past 48 hours, the socialist President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has installed a new national assembly (made up of his own supporters and relatives) in order to bypass his political opposition, and begun rounding up and jailing opposition leaders. While the United States and some Latin American allies condemned the arrests, many other nations and global organizations were silent or limited themselves to expressions of concern.

Last week, the Trump administration announced sanctions on 13 current and former members of Maduro’s administration, freezing their USA assets and barring Americans from doing business with them.

Last week, the US levied sanctions on 13 high-ranking officials in the Venezuelan government, a move that was quickly complemented by Colombia, Panama and Mexico. “I’m against North American imperialism, against colonialism, racism. Bring on more sanctions, Donald Trump”.

The sanctions, added Mnuchin, express clearly the opposition of ther U.S.to the policies of the Caracas Government, evern though that administration was legitimately elected.

Although both decisions were overturned within days, opposition leaders continue to lead the protests aimed at toppling President Nicolas Maduro, removing the members of the Supreme Court, restoration of local and regional elections, and release of political prisoners.

“To immediately put a stranglehold on by limiting the country’s ability to export oil day one (after the vote) runs the risk of creating a power vacuum and thereby increasing the possibility that Venezuela becomes a security threat in the region”, said Christian DiClementi, emerging markets debt portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein.

The European Union expressed “preoccupation for the fate of democracy in Venezuela” and said it, too, doubted it could accept the results.

And Britain’s Foreign Minister Boris Johnson warned that Venezuela “stands on the brink of disaster”.

Venezuela, the largest exporter of oil in Latin America, is on the verge of economic collapse and 80% of Venezuelans disapprove of the management of the president, according to the institute of polls from Datanalisis.

Last week, Maduro told RT Spanish the USA must abandon its interventionist policy towards Venezuela and steer clear of the internal affairs of other Latin American countries. Several Venezuelans told CNN this week they have lost weight this year due to food shortages, supporting findings from a national survey. Despite the National Electoral Council’s claims to the contrary, turnout appears to have been very low. More than 80 percent believe that the current constitution-drafted by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, who compared it to the Bible and would hand out miniature copies of it at rallies-is sufficient.

Lopez was detained three years ago after protests against Maduro’s government and sentenced to more than a decade in prison.