Venezuela's Maduro Says Rivals Plotted To Kill Jailed Opposition Leader

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela's Maduro Says Rivals Plotted To Kill Jailed Opposition Leader

CARACAS, 20 Aug (BERNAMA-NNN-EFE)-- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said several suspects in a separate high-profile murder case were part of a paramilitary squad commissioned by one faction of government opponents to kill opposition political leader Leopoldo Lopez.

"I have the recording of the head of the opposition who gave the order to kill Lopez. I have it and some day at the specific historic moment, I will provide it to the Venezuelan judiciary and to public opinion," said Maduro on his weekly radio and television program.

The president said that the attempt to assassinate the leader of the Popular Will party when he turned himself in to authorities on Feb. 18, 2014, was "to put the blame on the revolution" and to "seek an incident" that would blind government opponents with "rage" so that "they would take to the streets and destroy everything."

Lopez has been incarcerated since the day he voluntarily turned himself in to authorities in Caracas accompanied by thousands of followers after being accused of public incitement and criminal conspiracy in connection with violent acts over a six-day period linked to an anti-government march that he helped organize.
Maduro noted that after that "order to kill Lopez," he sent National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello to speak with the opposition leader's family and he "gave them details about where we were holding him."

More:
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/wn/newsworld.php?id=1163448

[GGJohn]

1. I'm calling Maduro a liar and bullshitter!!!!

You can bet that if he actually had a recording of a plot to kill Lopez, he would have already aired it.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Things are really simple for some, aren't they?

There are others who have to deal with a huge amount of information, many people, many angles, many results at stake in every decision.

I'll bet you'd make a tremendous leader.

[GGJohn]

4. I certainly couldn't do any worse than Maduro.

Do you deny that if he really had a tape of the "alleged" assassination plot, he would have already aired it?

[Marksman_91]

6. I think at this point it's valid to consider anything Maduro says as "bullshit"

Of course, fanatics like you are not gonna accept that, because it would shatter your image of him as the new saint of socialism in Latin America (which is funny since nobody else in the continent is implementing his economic policies, and they're all doing much better than Venezuela)

[MisterP]

3. Latin politics is VERY personality-focused, allowing very strange reconfigurations

this could even drive Lopez into talking up Maduro, weird as it sounds (remember, Petkoff hates chavismo since it's not petkovismo: also money, I presume)

(plus, y'know, the RW likes to try and "create martyrs" while accusing anyone to the left)

[Judi Lynn]

5. Should be interesting to see which direction Lopez takes now he has been "sprung"

to finish his sentence at home. That's not a resolution too many prisoners get. He should be happy, considering.

I can't understand what kind of critter Petkoff actually is. What a wreck of a human being.

[MisterP]

7. no anticommunist like an excommunist