Protest against Chavez political lynching of mayor

Reuters:

Thousands of Venezuelans protested on Friday against an attempt to arrest opposition leader Manuel Rosales on corruption charges, in a march that swelled a main avenue of the oil city of Maracaibo.

In a rare show of unity, opposition leaders from different political parties joined the march and spoke out against the bid to detain Rosales, which they said was a case of political persecution by socialist President Hugo Chavez.

"What they want to do to Manuel Rosales is not a trial, it's a political lynching," Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma said at the march, where protesters waved photos of Rosales, the most public face of Venezuela's fractured opposition.

The public prosecutor on Thursday asked a court for a warrant to arrest Rosales, a former presidential candidate who is mayor of Maracaibo, the second-largest city in the OPEC nation. The prosecutor on Friday requested Rosales' case be moved from Zulia, where he has wide support.

Since winning a February referendum allowing him to run for office as often as he likes, Chavez has moved to restrict the power of opposition mayors and governors, stripping local government of responsibility for ports and airports and putting some police forces and hospitals in the hands of central government.

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Chavez has been showing his streak of despotism. It is clear that he wants to intimidate those who oppose his rule. He also may be trying to distract from other events that expose his connection to dope smuggling through Venezuela by the FARC narco terrorist.

Chavez is also trying to consolidate his grip on Venezuela by the seizure of several ports.