Ousted Caracas mayor arrives in Madrid after fleeing house arrest

MADRID: The former mayor of Caracas, a staunch opponent of Venezuela´s President Nicolas Maduro, arrived in Madrid early Saturday after escaping house arrest and fleeing to Colombia. Antonio Ledezma, 62, managed to cross the border on Friday, saying he would now help organise resistance to Maduro´s increasingly authoritarian rule which has left millions facing food and medicine shortages.
From Bogota, he flew to the Spanish capital where he was met by his wife and his two daughters as well as former Colombian president Andres Pastrana.
A lawyer by profession, Ledezma was arrested and jailed in February 2015 over allegations he was plotting to overthrow the president, and had been under house arrest since August following surgery. “Venezuela is not at the edge of an abyss, it´s at the bottom of the abyss: it is collapsing,” he said on arriving at Madrid´s Barajas airport. Ledezma said he plans to travel the world to demonstrate “the hope of all Venezuelans to finish with this regime, this dictatorship,” and accused Maduro´s government of “colluding with drug traffickers”. He said Friday he had fled Caracas because Venezuelan military and intelligence officials had informed him of a “government plan” against him, though he provided no details.
Oil-rich but cash-poor Venezuela is facing a deepening political and economic crisis as Maduro has moved to marginalise opposition forces, which control the country´s legislature, and stifle independent media. This month the government signed a deal with Russia to restructure foreign debt of some $150 billion after it was hit hard by falling oil prices and sanctions imposed by Washington, which has labelled Madura a “dictator”.
Sacked Catalan leaders get pride of place in electoral lists: Jailed and exiled figures from Catalonia´s separatist movement feature prominently in party lists unveiled by the region´s pro-independence factions, ahead of elections called for December 21.
Of the 14 members of the Catalan government who were dismissed by the central government in October, 12 are on the two main separatist lists, the “Together for Catalonia” group of sacked president Carles Puigdemont and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), led by his vice president Oriol Junqueras. Seven of the former officials, including Junqueras, are currently jailed pending an investigation into charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, while Puigdemont and four others are in Belgium fighting an extradition request filed by Spain. Prosecutors in Brussels asked a judge Friday to extradite Puigdemont and the others, and a new hearing has been set for December 4.
But a final decision could still be months away, as both sides are expected to appeal if the judge rules against them, which means Puigdemont might be out of the country when the Catalonia vote is held. Junqueras and the others being held may be released before the election. Puigdemont presented on Twitter the lists backed by his conservative PDeCAT party, saying the candidates supported “independence, the republic and freedom”, as well as the restitution of the regional government and “a return of political prisoners and exiles”.
He had hoped to form a united separatist front for the new elections, as was the case in the region´s last elections in 2015, when the pro-independence camp secured a majority of 72 seats in the 135-seat parliament.
But the ERC rejected a joint ticket, and opinion polls suggest that while it is leading in the current campaign, which officially opens on December 5, the independence coalition as a whole could lose its absolute majority.
The polls indicate a tight race against the “Constitutionalist” bloc which favours Spanish unity, which includes Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy´s Popular Party (PP), the centrist Ciudadanos and Catalonia´s Socialist party. Madrid has imposed direct rule on the once semi-autonomous region since the independence declaration made after a banned referendum on October 1, and called the new elections in a bid to “restore normality”.
Regional authorities said 90 percent chose to split from Spain, though less than half of eligible voters turned out in a region deeply divided on independence.