Venezuelan Activists Protest Treatment of Jailed Dissidents

Demonstrators gathered outside Venezuela's National Intelligence Service headquarters this week to demand the release, or at least better treatment, of several hundred dissidents detained there and elsewhere for months. Adriana Pichardo was among several lawmakers in the opposition-controlled National Assembly joining a dozen activists at the site Wednesday. She said detainees' family members had complained to her of inhumane conditions, with detainees sometimes kept in isolation, subjected to other harsh treatment and exposed to contagious ailments. More…