Venezuela opposition figures taken from their homes

Leading Venezuelan opposition figures Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma were taken from their homes early Tuesday, according to their families, after they opposed a controversial election that critics say will let President Nicolás Maduro illegitimately consolidate power. Both families distributed separate videos purportedly showing armed men carrying the politicians away from their homes in the night. One shows a man apparently pulling Ledezma, a former Caracas mayor, out a door. It wasn't immediately clear who took the opposition leaders and where they were taken. But Ledezma's family alleged the Venezuelan intelligence service SEBIN detained him. And the video posted by Lopez's family shows him being driven away in a car with SEBIN markings.

Opposition Leaders Taken

Video and still images are at the link, and it certainly appears that the vehicle I saw was marked SEBIN.

At what point is the UN going to step in and stop the madness going on in Venezuela? In this day and age you should not be able to secret away your political opponents in the middle of the night and not face consequences.

Anyone who looked at what the special election was going to allow the new council to do isn't going to be at all surprised by this.

It won't be the last ugliness either.

This is just the beginning of the purges coming out of Venezuela.

And as for the UN, right. It's composed of countries where jailing political dissidents is routine. Venezuela is just joining the club.

a reply to: Excallibacca

It will end badly for Maduro. The country is in dire straights as it is. Eventually the entire country will turn on him at some point. His security forces can not and will not protect him from what is coming in the future.

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

His new little special political council has the power to remove him and it's not composed of his friends.

They may very well remove him before it gets that far, but it won't do anything to restore the fact that Venezuela has pretty much fallen into either an oligarchy or more likely a communist nation now with this vote.

a reply to: Excallibacca

Leopoldo Lopez's House Arrest Revoked After Violating Terms

Opposition figures in Venezuela Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma's house arrests were revoked Tuesday morning after violating the conditions of the agreement that allowed their freedom under special conditions.

Lopez had urged Venezuelans to take to the streets to block the roads to prevent the election of the National Constituent Assembly, along with Henrique Capriles. In June, while he was still in prison, he published a video asking the military to rebel against the government.

Ledezma also sent similar messages before and during the election.

What Mainstream Media Got Wrong About Venezuela's Constituent Assembly Vote

a reply to: Excallibacca

The u.n. is a joke. They have a great record of removing dictators.
But I'm sure they will make a statement everyone will ignore.

I think Spain should take military action and overthrow the government in Venezuela.

That would solve the whole problem.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I completely agree that the UN is a joke, and if they showed up on my doorstep I'd tell them I don't recognize their authority. That being said, I don't know who else would do anything.

a reply to: Excallibacca

So the people organizing violence are getting arrested, good. It's one thing to protest it's another to organize the destruction of infrastructure and murder supporters of the president.

That's not to say the president is right at all but we cant ignore how #ty the protest organizers are.

A cruise missile aimed at the Venezuela's presidential palace would solve the problem nicely.

That would probably be the best possible outcome, because the vastly-more-likely outcome is widespread rioting and people getting lynched in the streets.

a reply to: Excallibacca

That country is a tinderbox and, whatever your politics, you've really got to respect the bravery of these people standing up for their rights in the face of such oppression. I wonder how many of the Twitter pedagogues in this country would have such intestinal fortitude.

Having said that, I don't think anyone outside of the country has the right to do anything, the UN, Spain, etc.. I guarantee the CIA are doing their best to screw things up down there. But this is an internal issue of a sovereign nation. Don't forget, we have political prisoners in the US, the UK, and all of the so-called first world nations as well.

a reply to: Excallibacca

The UN will write a very stern letter and use CAPS and maybe an exclamation point.

Then they'll unfriend him from Facebook.

This is the end game of socialism: secret police, famine, food shortages, and the opposition being whisked away in the night never to be seen again.

....and people here call Trump a dictator.

a reply to: Antipathy17

Revolution is never clean and easy. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to bring change.

a reply to: TheTory

They all have healthcare coverage!

So back off...

Hollywood's favorite utopia working as intended. Hillbots would so like to drag all the Trump supporters away kicking and screaming into the night. Everyone take note of Venezuela real live Fascists praised up and down and supported by the Left.

The UN? Doing anything more than being really angry and writing a letter telling how angry they are?

a reply to: ketsuko

He is going to be captured and tortured.

Its going to be a big deal in the UN

a reply to: tadaman

But it won't change the things that will happen to Venezuela in the meantime.

They'll use Maduro as a ritual sacrifice to attempt to make the peasants happy, but all the while they'll use the power this election has granted them to basically remove any vestiges of elective power the country had left.