The secret police seized Venezuelan opposition leader Freddy Guevara on Monday, and he will be prosecuted with "terrorism" and "treason," according to the prosecutor's office.
Guevara, a close ally of opposition leader Juan Guaido, was detained by members of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin), according to Attorney General Tarek Saab, because of “his links with extremist and paramilitary groups associated with the Colombian government,” which, along with the US, is one of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's harshest critics.
“Terrorism, attacks against the constitutional order, conspiracy to commit a crime, and treason will be charged against him,” Saab stated.
Guevara, who was elected to parliament in the 2015 election that handed the opposition control of the assembly under Guaido's leadership, had previously been accused by the Socialist government of inciting violence in anti-Maduro marches. Between April and July 2017, 125 people were killed in the subsequent conflicts.
He sought refuge in the Chilean embassy when the prosecutor's office approved charges against him, and he was released last September after Maduro pardoned him.
As he was being intercepted by intelligence operatives on a Caracas highway, the 35-year-old former student leader tweeted on social media from inside his car.
In a live broadcast, Guevara remarked, "Greetings to my family, I am very sorry that you are going through this suffering, I hope it is brief."
Guevara and his political mentor Leopoldo Lopez, who is currently exiled in Spain, are accused by the government of being involved in deadly clashes in a Caracas neighborhood last week that left at least 26 people dead.
Without specifically citing Guevara's case, Maduro remarked, "They want to disguise themselves as democrats," but "they ally themselves with criminals."
“We have pardoned some of these sectors for previous causes, but they are pardoned... “They jump right in looking for criminals, funding violent groups, and planning assassinations,” he claimed.
