Ousted Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma on Friday said he plans to take his fight against Venezuela’s socialist government to Europe after he escaped house arrest and fled to Colombia.
The flight was an apparent embarrassment for security forces who had been keeping close watch over one of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leaders.
“I’m more useful fighting for Venezuela’s democracy abroad than I am as a hostage at my home,” Ledezma told reporters in a telephone interview minutes before boarding a Madrid-bound plane in Colombia’s capital.
Photo: AFP
He said the decision to flee Venezuela was his alone, kept secret even from his family, who have been living abroad.
He provided no details of how he sneaked past the Sebin intelligence police officers stationed 24 hours a day outside his residence, but said that during the long, nighttime drive past several national guard checkpoints to the western border, he relied on the help of members of the security forces he described as increasingly fed up with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“This decision I took consulting only my conscience,” he said, adding that he had spoken by phone to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who offered his support.
Colombian immigration authorities said in a statement that Ledezma entered the country legally after crossing the Simon Bolivar bridge. There was no immediate reaction from the Venezuelan government.
As Venezuelans were waking up to the news of Ledezma’s escape and resurfacing in Colombia, several heavily armed police officers surrounded his residence in Caracas.
Ledezma, 62, was removed as mayor of Caracas and detained in 2015 on charges of plotting to oust Maduro. After a few months in jail, he was released and placed under house arrest due to health issues.
He said the decision to abandon his homeland was driven by unspecified threats intended to force the opposition to resume politically fraught negotiations with the government.
Ledezma has adamantly criticized other members of the opposition alliance for being too accommodating with the government.
Lawmakers from his Alliance for the Brave People political party were among a small group of hardliners who this week formed their own parliamentary bloc after the main opposition alliance sent representatives to the Dominican Republic to discuss an agenda for future talks with senior officials.
Those negotiations are slated to begin on Dec. 1 under international mediation from six nations, including Maduro’s leftist allies Nicaragua and Bolivia.
“I’ve never been an enemy of dialogue, but these talks are a joke,” Ledezma said.
Having outlasted months of deadly unrest and consolidated his grip on power, Maduro is hoping he can convince the opposition to sign off on plans to restructure Venezuela’s foreign debt as US financial sanctions exacerbate the nation’s economic misery.
This week, several ratings agencies and a finance industry group said Venezuela had defaulted on its foreign bonds after missing several payments.
Maduro is betting that talks with the opposition would help him get backing for a plan to restructure the US$120 billion debt, about half of which consists of US dollar-denominated bonds.
Meanwhile, his opponents want guarantees that presidential elections scheduled for next year will be fair and transparent after widespread international condemnation of vote rigging in gubernatorial elections that pro-government candidates swept despite widespread rejection of Maduro.
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