VENEZUELA: A Venezuelan judge issued arrest warrants against two prominent opposition leaders who failed to respond to allegations of criminal conspiracy arising from their participation in the two-month general strike which concluded earlier this month.
Mr Carlos Fernandez, director of the employers' federation, Fedecamaras, was detained on Wednesday, accused of criminal conspiracy and sabotage, while police officers continued to search for Mr Carlos Ortega, president of the Venezuelan Workers' Confederation, who is sought on the same charges.
Several more warrants have allegedly been prepared to call oil executives and media owners to account for actively supporting efforts to topple President Hugo Chavez over the past year.
Mr Fernandez and Mr Ortega played key roles in the failed coup which briefly ousted Mr Chavez last April and have since urged army officers to disobey their commanders and embark on another coup attempt.
The opposition Democratic co-ordinator yesterday threatened to call another general strike to protest the arrests while middle-class residents banged pots through the night to show their indignation.
"Due process has been respected every step of the way," said political analyst Mr Augusto Montiel. "The judge issued a warrant after an investigation, just like any judge in any other country in the world."
The arrest of prominent opposition activists, combined with acts of violence against pro- and anti-Chavez supporters this week, appeared to have scuppered a preliminary peace accord aimed at defusing the growing political crisis.
Dissident army officers supported the nationwide strike which demanded Mr Chavez's resignation but was lifted a fortnight ago in all areas except the oil industry, to protect businesses from bankruptcy.
The collapse of the general strike had shifted opposition action efforts towards a petition for a constitutional amendment that would cut President Chavez's term in office from six to four years. At least two million citizens, well over the 15 per cent of registered voters, signed the anti-Chavez petition, more than the 1.8 million required to force a referendum on early elections.
Meanwhile, forensic police investigating the murder of three dissident soldiers suggested the victims may have been caught up in an act of personal revenge.
The murdered troops exchanged blows with a fellow army dissident in a public square last weekend, shortly before a group of armed men took them away by force. Mr Edgar Machado, allegedly attacked by the three disappeared soldiers, filed a complaint to the police about the attack.