Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is now under house arrest.
Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was released from prison and placed under house arrest Saturday after more than three years in military lockup, a shocking reversal that fueled hopes for a broader amnesty for dozens of jailed activists as the country slides ever deeper into political turmoil.
Venezuela’s government-stacked Supreme Court said in a statement that it had granted Lopez the “humanitarian measures” for health reasons and “serious signs of irregularities” in the handling of the case that it did not specify.
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 kissed a Venezuelan flag and raised his right fist in a show of defiance.
Lopez vowed that he’s prepared to return to jail rather than give up his fight to remove 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, coexistence, change and freedom.”
As his backers celebrated, relatives of dozens of other jailed activists gathered at a Caracas jail in hopes that their loved ones might be released too in the coming hours.