Venezuela’s Maduro Said Rivals Plotted to Kill Jailed Opposition Leader

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said several suspects in a separate high-profile murder case were part of a paramilitary squad commissioned by one faction of government opponents to kill opposition political leader Leopoldo Lopez. “I have the recording of the head of the opposition who gave the order to kill Lopez. I have it and some day at the specific historic moment, I will provide it to the Venezuelan judiciary and to public opinion,” said Maduro on his weekly radio and television program. The president said that the attempt to assassinate the leader of the Popular Will party when he turned himself in to authorities on Feb. 18, 2014, was “to put the blame on the revolution” and to “seek an incident” that would blind government opponents with “rage” so that “they would take to the streets and destroy everything.” More…