Caracas Mayor Escapes House Arrest, Crosses Into Colombia

(Bloomberg) -- Former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma escaped from house arrest after nearly three years of detention, becoming the latest opposition leader to the government of Nicolas Maduro to flee the the country amid a crackdown on dissent.

Colombian immigration authorities said Ledezma entered the country legally early hours of Friday, traveling across the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, that links the two nations. A fierce Maduro critic, Ledezma was stripped of his title in 2015 and arrested on charges of conspiring to incite violence against the government. The former mayor was initially held in custody by Venezuela’s SEBIN intelligence police, but was later transferred to house arrest for health reasons.

“Maduro can’t keep torturing the Venezuelan people, he’s killing them with hunger,” Ledezma said in an interview Friday with Colombia’s W radio, announcing he would travel the world to raise awareness of the spiraling economic and social crisis in his home country. “He must step aside.”

Ledezma, 62, helped ignite a wave of street demonstrations in 2014 known as “The Exit,” which sought to pressure Venezuela’s ruling socialists to leave office. Initially peaceful, the protests turned violent, claiming dozens of lives and leading to the arrest of several dissidents, including activist Leopoldo Lopez, who was transferred to house arrest this year.

Other high-profile dissidents and former government officials, such as former public prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, have left Venezuela out of fear of arrest to take refuge mostly in Colombia and Spain.

Mitzy Capriles, Ledezma’s wife, told Colombia’s Radio Caracol on Friday that her husband now planned to travel to Spain to reunite with his family. “We never planned on escaping, but SEBIN’s persecution left us no choice,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Rosati in Caracas at arosati3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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