Agencies/Caracas
Jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez has declared himself on hunger strike and called for a protest march next weekend against Venezuela’s socialist government.
Lopez, the best-known opposition activist in custody, was jailed more than a year ago for his role in instigating street protests against President Nicolas Maduro that led to violence killing 43 people and injuring hundreds more.
In a video from Ramo Verde prison where he is being held, Lopez, 44, said he and another jailed politician - former San Cristobal mayor Daniel Ceballos - were going on hunger strike “with one concrete petition: freedom of political prisoners”.
Ceballos was moved from Ramo Verde, outside the capital Caracas, to another jail in the state of Guarico, on Saturday.
In the video message posted on Twitter by his wife at the weekend, Lopez also urged an end to “persecution” of government opponents, the fixing of a date for this year’s parliamentary election and a march against the Maduro government on Saturday.
There was no response from the government to Lopez’s message, though the state ombudsman, Tarek William Saab, said on Twitter that he met Lopez. He said the opposition leader had been disciplined after a mobile phone was found in his cell in violation of prison rules, the third discovered in the cell in four months.
US assistant secretary of state Roberta Jacobson said on Twitter that she was “worried” about Ceballos’ transfer without a judicial order and called on the government of President Nicolas Maduro to “release all political prisoners.”
Ceballos’ transfer comes amid worsening economic problems in Venezuela, including the national currency’s loss of a quarter of its value over the last week.
In the video, Lopez repeated his charge that Venezuela’s government is corrupt and incompetent.
“One year and three months after our call for change, the situation has gotten even worse. More lines, more inflation, more scarcity, more crime, more corruption,” he said, standing before what looks like a metal door in a mostly bare white room.
Lopez called for big, peaceful demonstrations next Saturday.
Ceballos’ legal team said earlier that he had phoned his mother before dawn on Saturday to say he had been moved to one of Venezuela’s most violent penitentiaries, in the town of San Juan de los Morros.
That was later denied by Saab, who said he met with Ceballos at a different, recently opened jail in the same town. In messages posted on Twitter, Saab said Ceballos is in good health and the ombudsman’s office will continue monitoring his conditions in confinement.
Ceballos was removed as mayor of the western city of San Cristobal during last year’s anti-government protests. It was unclear why he was transferred to a regular prison.
