Venezuela sends dissident ex-general Baduel back to jail

Venezuelan authorities put dissident former general Raul Baduel back behind bars on Thursday, accusing him of breaking parole conditions by conspiring against the socialist government.

 

President Nicolas Maduro's government cast the re-arrest of Baduel, who was first jailed in 2009 for six years, as part of a sweep against violent coup plotters.

 

But the opposition said the OPEC nation's rulers were engaging in a wave of repression against political foes of Maduro, 54, the unpopular successor to Hugo Chavez.

 

Opposition activist Gilber Caro was arrested on Wednesday on charges of plotting violence and carrying weapons.

 

Two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles has warned authorities are about to ban him from holding political office due to alleged irregularities in the Miranda state he governs.

 

And two city councilmen, from Capriles' Justice First party, were also arrested in the last two days in Venezuela's second largest city Maracaibo, the government said.

 

Interior Minister Nestor Reverol, who is part of a new "anti-coup" unit set up by Maduro, said authorities were dismantling a new "terrorist" plot by right-wing politicians.

 

"We wish to announce the detention of General Raul Isaias Baduel," he said in a speech on state TV.

 

"Important criminal evidence was uncovered in a search of his home, of presumed conspiratorial activities."

 

Baduel played a key role in the rescue of Chavez from a coup in 2002 but later broke ranks with him and was arrested on charges of illicit enrichment when defense minister.

 

Baduel has always called the accusations politically motivated. "The regime is responsible for his health and physical integrity," his son Adolfo Baduel said on Twitter, confirming Thursday's detention.

 

While Maduro accuses opponents of seeking a coup with the connivance of Washington, critics say he has taken the South American country down an increasingly dictatorial path.

 

More than 100 political prisoners are now being held in Venezuela, according to the opposition and rights groups.

 

Vatican-backed mediation talks intended to free prisoners and ease the bitter political standoff stalled in December.

 

On Wednesday, Maduro said the opposition-held National Assembly had effectively "self-dissolved" by defying Supreme Court rulings against it.

 

"The regime accelerates its anti-democratic strategy of continued coup d'etat against democracy, the constitution and the people, ignoring parliament, jailing lawmakers and harassing governors," the opposition Democratic Unity coalition said.