Venezuela frees jailed opposition leader
CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was released from prison and placed under house arrest Saturday after more than three years in a military lockup, a shock reversal by the government that fuelled hopes for a broader amnesty for dozens of jailed activists in a country sliding ever deeper into political turmoil.
A euphoric Lopez briefly greeted a few dozen supporters gathered outside his home in Caracas in the afternoon.
Climbing atop a wall dressed in a white shirt, he clutched and then kissed a Venezuelan flag and raised his right fist in a show of defiance.
Lopez vowed that he is prepared to return to jail rather than give up his fight to remove socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
“This is a step in the march toward freedom,” Lopez said in a statement read by close ally and lawmaker Freddy Guevara.
“I carry no resentment, nor will I give up my beliefs. My position against this regime is firm as are my convictions to fight for a real peace, for coexistence, change and freedom.”
Venezuela’s government-stacked Supreme Court said in a statement that it granted Lopez the “humanitarian measures” for health reasons and also for “serious signs of irregularities” in the handling of the case that it did not specify.
As his backers celebrated, relatives of dozens of other jailed activists gathered at a jail in Caracas run by Venezuela’s intelligence police in hopes that their loved ones might also be released in the coming hours.
Speculation that Lopez’s predawn transfer may have been part of a larger deal was sparked in part by a government truth commission statement saying that as part of its work to defuse tensions, it had asked the judicial system to evaluate applying “alternative formulas” for those imprisoned for violent acts and inciting violence.
The opposition has been demanding the release of dozens of activists it consider political prisoners in order to initiate talks aimed at resolving a three-monthold political crisis that has left more than 90 people dead and hundreds injured. Large demonstrations against Maduro have become a weekly event in Venezuela.
But Lopez, the most prominent and rebellious of those behind bars, was seen as the last person likely to leave jail, and the opposition went to lengths to dismiss talk that it had secretly offered anything in return for the government concession.
Some government supporters expressed dismay over his release.
The 46-year-old former Caracas-area mayor was sentenced in 2015 to nearly 14 years in prison after being convicted of inciting violence during anti-government protests in which three people died and dozens were wounded.
“We spoke for like 40 minutes. He’s hugging his children, he’s with his wife . ... I’m sure they are celebrating,” Lopez’s father, who shares his son’s name, said from Spain, where he lives in exile.
Venezuela has been rocked by near-daily protests since late March, fuelled by widespread discontent over shortages of basic goods, galloping inflation and allegations that Maduro is undermining democracy in the country.
The Supreme Court statement pointing to possible “irregularities” in the Lopez case surprised government supporters and foes alike because the high court has not previously shown any signs of misgivings about its rulings.
Foreign governments and human rights groups have long criticized Lopez’s detention as politically motivated, and one of the prosecutors on the case who later sought asylum in the United States said he was ordered by the government to arrest Lopez despite a lack of evidence.