Authorities arrested three people on Monday in connection with the murder of an opposition leader that has shaken Venezuela and drawn international condemnation in the run-up to this weekend's election for a new legislature.
Opposition leaders blamed last week’s shooting of Luis Diaz (44), a candidate for the Democratic Action party in central Guarico state, on the ruling Socialists.
But president Nicolas Maduro’s government has furiously denied that. Officials say Diaz was a criminal caught out in a gang dispute linked to unions in Guarico, whose death was being manipulated to discredit the Socialists.
The prosecutor general’s office named three men, aged between 22 and 28, whom it said were arrested yesterday morning in the town of Altagracia de Orituco, where Diaz was killed at a rally.
The murder has heightened tension about Sunday’s ballot, which polls show could be won by the opposition for the first time in 16 years. – Reuters