Venezuelan opposition figure Freddy Guevara arrested for “links to extremist groups”: Attorney General

CARACAS, July 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Prominent Venezuelan opposition figure Freddy Guevara was arrested on Monday, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said.

Guevara was detained by SEBIN, the intelligence service, after Venezuela’s Public Ministry issued an arrest warrant due to his “links to extremist and paramilitary groups associated with the Colombian government,” Saab said in a statement.

Saab said that Guevara was charged with terrorism crimes, attack against the constitutional order, conspiracy to commit a crime and treason.

In September, Guevara left the Chilean embassy in Caracas, having stayed on its premises for almost three years, after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pardoned him and dozen more opposition politicians and activists ahead of parliamentary elections in December.

Venezuela’s opposition leader and self-declared interim president Juan Guaido said that on Monday, armed policemen also surrounded his own residence without detaining him.

“The shots, the intimidation, the threats are not going to stop us, just as they did not stop the neighbours who came down from their apartments or the media that arrived to inform the world of what was happening,” a release by the opposition National Assembly cited Guaido as saying.

Foreign governments and rights organizations condemned the Venezuelan government’s actions.

“We strongly condemn the arrest of … [Freddy Guevara] and the threats against interim President @JGuaido in Venezuela,” tweeted Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for the US Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

“We urge the international community to join us in condemning these acts and demand the release of all those detained for political reasons.”

Venezuela has been locked in a power struggle between Maduro’s government and the opposition, led by Washington-backed Guaido. — NNN-AGENCIES