This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Venezuelan opposition leader Antonio Ledezma, who was detained in 2015 on allegations of coup-plotting but had been under house arrest in Caracas, has fled over the border to Colombia.

Colombian immigration authorities said on Friday that Ledezma entered the country legally after crossing the Simón Bolívar bridge separating the two countries.

Ledezma, 62, was the best-known detained opponent of President Nicolás Maduro’s government after Leopoldo López, who is also under house arrest in Caracas.

He was removed as mayor of Caracas and detained in 2015 on charges of plotting to oust President Nicolás Maduro, after leading anti-government protests in 2014 that led to months of violence and 43 deaths.

After a few months in jail he was released and placed under house arrest due to health issues.

Government officials mocked Ledezma as ‘the vampire’ and at the time of his arrest accused him of having ties with violent hardliners and supporting dissident military officers plotting to topple the president via airstrikes.

“Welcome to freedom!” tweeted the former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana, who is close to Venezuela’s opposition.

María Corina Machado, another hardline opposition leader close to the former mayor, said Ledezma decided to leave because he was under threat after he recently broke with other members of the opposition and stridently condemned attempts at reinitiating a new round of dialogue with Maduro’s government.

“I was sure that Antonio Ledezma wouldn’t allow himself to become a hostage of tyranny,” said Machado in a tweet.

Lawmakers from Ledezma’s Alliance for the Brave People political party were among a small group of legislators who this week decided to form their own parliamentary bloc to distinguish themselves from other opposition parties they consider too accommodating of Maduro.

The umbrella Democratic Unity opposition umbrella group this week sent representatives to the Dominican Republic to discuss the agenda for talks with Maduro’s government that are slated to begin in two weeks on the Caribbean island under the observation of six foreign governments.

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Those talks come as Venezuela approaches hyperinflation and Maduro is struggling to stay current on the country’s foreign debt. This week, several ratings agencies and a finance industry group said Venezuela had defaulted on its foreign bonds after missing several payments.

Maduro is betting that talks with the opposition will help him get backing for a plan to restructure the country’s foreign debt.



Meanwhile, his opponents want guarantees that presidential elections scheduled for next year will be fair and transparent after widespread international condemnation of vote rigging in recent gubernatorial elections that pro-government candidates swept despite widespread rejection of Maduro.