Hey, Maduro: Imprisoning opposition leaders will only embolden those who hate dictators

(Photo: Fernando Llano AP)

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s decision to imprison opposition leaders Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma will not help his beleaguered regime. On the contrary, it may backfire.

Judging from what I’m hearing from well-placed Latin American and U.S. diplomats, the Maduro regime’s incarceration of the two internationally known politicians — who were under house arrest serving long sentences on phony government charges — has infuriated leaders across the world.

The Aug. 1 arrests, as well as the revelation a day later by the CEO of the Smartmatic voting technology firm that the Venezuelan regime had rigged his company’s count of the government-convened July 30 vote for a Constituent Assembly, is likely to move more countries to take a stronger stand against the Maduro dictatorship.

“It will have an important impact,” Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz told me in a telephone interview, referring to the late-night raids by security forces into the two opposition leaders’ homes, and their return to prison. “This can’t go on. There can’t be more arrests, and violation of the rule of law.”
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