TheCable

The US will hold Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “personally responsible” for the safety of two opposition leaders, President Donald Trump said in a statement.

Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, who were taken into custody earlier Tuesday, were “political prisoners being held illegally by the regime,” he continued.

“The US holds Maduro, who publicly announced just hours earlier that he would move against his political opposition, personally responsible for the health and safety of Mr Lopez, Mr Ledezma, and any others seized,” Trump said.

Police stormed the home of Lopez, who was already under house arrest and took him back to jail in the early hours of Tuesday, according to his wife, Lilian Tintori.

Ledezma, an opposition politician, who was also under house arrest, was reportedly taken back into detention on Tuesday as well.

Court officials said on Tuesday that both men had made political statements in violation of the terms of their release into house arrest, and accused them of planning to flee the country.

The arrests came as leaders of Venezuela’s opposition-dominated legislature called for citizens to help defend the national assembly, and welcomed a surge of international support, as Maduro seeks to rewrite the country’s constitution.

A vote decreed by Maduro was held Sunday to elect deputies to a constituent assembly, which the opposition says is a power grab by the president to install one-party rule.

Freddy Guevara, vice president of the unicameral legislature, called for Venezuelans to peacefully defend the parliament building, which the constituent assembly is expected to seek to occupy when it begins meeting as early as this week.

“The solidarity with our case is growing,” Guevara said, noting that visits had been made on Tuesday to the assembly by ambassadors from France, Spain, Britain and Mexico.

Governments in Latin America, Europe and the US have rejected the legitimacy of Sunday’s election.

Authorities said 10 people died on Sunday in election-related violence, while the opposition claimed the death toll was 16.

At least 123 people have died since April in ongoing anti-Maduro protests.

After the election, Washington slapped financial sanctions on Maduro for undermining democracy in Venezuela, blacklisting him alongside some of the world’s most notorious leaders.

Maduro was defiant in response, saying, “I don’t take imperialist orders.”

US government officials are reportedly considering trade sanctions against Venezuela targeting its oil industry.