Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, the target of a Venezuelan police manhunt for allegedly inciting violence at anti-government protests that ended with three deaths, has said that he will surrender himself after staging one more demonstration.
In a video shot in an undisclosed location, Lopez said he didn't fear arrest but accused authorities of trying to violate his constitutional right to protest against President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government.
He urged supporters to gather tomorrow in white shirts and march peacefully with him to the Interior Ministry, where he said he would deliver a petition demanding a full investigation of the government's role in the deaths. He said he would turn himself over to authorities tomorrow.
"I haven't committed any crime," said Lopez, who hasn't been seen since a news conference Wednesday night after the bloodshed. "If there is a decision to legally throw me in jail I'll submit myself to this persecution."
Lopez's comments came after security forces raided his home and that of his parents late Saturday, seeking to serve an arrest order on charges ranging from vandalism of public property to terrorism and homicide.
Lopez wasn't at either residence in Caracas' leafy eastern district when national guardsmen and military intelligence officials arrived. Aides said neighbours banged on pots and pans to protest what they considered an arbitrary detention order.
The raids capped another night of protests during which security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a group of about 500 students who vowed to remain on the streets until all arrested anti-government demonstrators are released. Authorities said 23 people were being treated for injuries, none of them life-threatening.
More protests were held yesterday without incident by late afternoon.
Lopez, a Harvard-educated former mayor, is the most prominent of a group of opposition hard-liners who are challenging two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles for leadership of anti-Maduro movement.
Maduro accuses the 42-year-old Lopez of leading a US-backed "fascist" plot to oust him from power just two months after the ruling party's candidates won mayoral elections by a landslide.
Lopez "ordered all these violent kids, who he trained, to destroy the prosecutor's office and half of Caracas and then goes into hiding," Maduro told thousands of supporters at a pro-government rally Saturday. "Turn yourself in coward."
Lopez has vowed to press ahead with demonstrations calling for Maduro to give up power. The opposition blames the socialist president for Venezuela's rampant crime, 50 per cent inflation and worsening shortages of basic goods.
