Opposition Leader Manuel Rosales Arrested Upon Return — Venezuela News

“Hello to all the people on [street] 72 from the airport, the streets of Maracaibo, from Zulia, from all of Venezuela who are waiting for me with love, passion in search of the better horizon of a better future for Venezuela”. Mr Chavez had called him a “thief” and said: “Manuel Rosales, I will sweep you from the political map of Venezuela”.

A Venezuelan opposition leader who had been living in self-imposed exile was arrested Thursday after returning to the socialist South American country.

Journalists were blocked from filming the area as he was arrested.

Rosales, has previously said he wanted to take part in December’s parliamentary elections, but he was detained shortly after landing in the city of Maracaibo on Thursday from the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba.

A former presidential nominee, Mr Rosales, says the charges were politically inspired and denies any wrongdoing. He fled to Peru and then to Panama.

For years Rosales was considered Chavez’s top opponent.

He went into hiding in March 2009, ahead of a court hearing to decide whether to jail him pending trial.

As he made his return, Rosales told local media he was innocent.

His successor, President Nicolas Maduro, has struggled to rein in violent crime, end crippling shortages and right the ailing oil giant’s recession-racked economy.

Polls say the opposition is on track to win the December elections, potentially dealing the first decisive ballot-box defeat to the socialist party in 16 years.

The opposition however is split between a radical wing led by figures like jailed ex-mayor Leopoldo Lopez, and a more moderate faction led by 2013 presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.

Intelligence agents took Mr Rosales into custody after he landed in Zulia’s capital, Maracaibo, on Thursday, where hundreds of supporters had gathered at a rally to support him.

When Mr. Rosales announced his intention to return to the country last Friday, Venezuela’s attorney general’s office warned he would be arrested on charges of stealing public money that date to his governorship and prompted his earlier flight from the country.

Lopez, 44, was sentenced to almost 14 years in prison in early September on charges of inciting violence during deadly protests between February and May 2014.