Venezuelan opponent barred from leaving
CARACAS, VENEZUELA» A prominent anti-government activist was barred from leaving Venezuela on Saturday for meetings with European leaders, dealing a setback to opposition attempts to rally international pressure on President Nicolas Maduro.
Lilian Tintori posted a photo on Twitter of herself at Caracas’ international airport holding a document signed by immigration officials ordering the seizure of her passport as she was preparing to board an afternoon flight. Tintori said she had a meeting planned for Monday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.
No explanation for the travel ban was given, but the move came a day after she was ordered to appear before a judge Tuesday to answer questions about a large sum of cash found in her vehicle.
Tintori, the wife of the nation’s most-prominent detained activist, Leopoldo Lopez, said she was also scheduled to meet with the leaders of Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
“The evidence is clear why the dictatorship is stirring the pot against me,” Tintori tweeted. “They want to keep me from talking about the humanitarian crisis we are living in Venezuela.”
On Friday, Tintori received notice that she was being investigated after authorities discovered in her car some 200 million bolivars, around $60,000 at the nation’s weakest official exchange rate or $10,000 at the widely used black market rate.
She denounced the probe as politically motivated, pointing out in a video that it’s not a crime to have cash in one’s possession. She said the money, found in her car as it was parked at her mother-inlaw’s home, was to pay for family emergencies including the hospitalization of her 100-year-old grandmother.
Tintori said she kept such a large sum in cash because of spiraling tripledigit inflation that has pulverized the value of Venezuela’s currency and because no local bank would open an account for such a critic of the government.
While it’s not clear what possible crime Tintori is being investigated for, some government supporters have accused her of using the funds to finance “terrorism” — a term they frequently use to describe violent protests that have rocked Venezuela — although they have presented no evidence.
Tarek William Saab, whom the pro-government constitutional assembly appointed to replace Venezuela’s chief prosecutor after she was ousted recently, said that her case was under investigation.