Venezuela’s jailed Lopez is well, urges more protests

Jailed opposition Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez is well and is urging street demonstrators to keep up massive anti-government protests, his wife said on Sunday after her first visit with the former presidential hopeful in over a month, putting to rest rumours of his ill health.

With tensions already high after over a month of street action, many Venezuelans were shocked on Wednesday when a journalist tweeted that Lopez had been taken to hospital without vital signs.

President Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government later released a video of Lopez saying he was fine, but his wife, Lilian Tintori, said the footage was “false” and demanded to see him. The government accused the Lopez clan of whipping up a media frenzy to gain attention.

Lopez, a former mayor jailed in 2014 for fomenting violent street protests, is indeed alive and well, Tintori told reporters after a visit at the Ramo Verde military prison with Lopez’ mother and two children.

“We finally saw him… Of course the first thing I did was hug him hard and ask if he was well. He said: ‘I’m well, I’m alive, I’m strong,'” said Tintori, who is leading an international campaign to free Lopez, Venezuela’s most prominent imprisoned politician.

Supporters say the U.S.-educated economist and leader of the hard-line Popular Will party was sentenced by a kangaroo court because he was seen as a political threat to unpopular Maduro.

“I told him everything that we’ve been living. Leopoldo didn’t know anything, because he’s been isolated,” said Tintori, who added Lopez was purposefully kept in the dark about the unrest in Venezuela and blasted “rumours” about his wellbeing.

“Leopoldo is proud of Venezuela and asks us to keep fighting,” she added to cheers.