Ousted Caracas mayor flees house arrest, heads to Europe
CARACAS, Venezuela — Ousted Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma said he plans to take his fight against Venezuela’s socialist government to Europe after he escaped house arrest and fled to Colombia on Friday. The flight was an apparent embarrassment for security forces who had been keeping close watch over one of Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leaders.
“I’m more useful fighting for Venezuela’s democracy abroad than I am as a hostage at my home,” Ledezma told The Associated Press in a phone interview minutes before boarding a Madrid-bound plane in Colombia’s capital.
He said the decision to flee Venezuela was his alone, kept secret even from his family, which has been living abroad. He provided no details of how he sneaked past the Sebin intelligence police officers stationed 24 hours a day outside his residence, but said that during the long, nighttime drive past several national guard checkpoints to Venezuela’s western border, he relied on the help of members of the security forces he described as increasingly fed up with President Nicolas Maduro.
“This decision I took consulting only my conscience,” he said, adding that he had spoken by phone to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who offered his support.