Trial starts for Venezuela opposition leader

Jailed opposition leader Leopoldo López went on trial in Venezuela on Wednesday, accused of masterminding anti-government protests that turned violent and left 43 people dead.

Days after the demonstrations began in mid-February, López turned himself in to authorities and has been in a military jail since, but protests continued for about three months.

A Caracas court heard accusations against him of inciting crime and being the intellectual author of damages and arson.

Nearly 900 people were injured in the worst explosion of violence in the South American OPEC member for a decade, as activists opposed to President Nicolás Maduro faced off with government supporters and state security forces.

Some 87 people remain behind bars, including 16 state security officials, after a traumatic period that left the opposition movement divided between hardliners and moderates, and the government shaken but intact.

Asked to comment about the trial at a news conference in his presidential palace, Maduro, describing the question as "provocative", lambasted López and urged punishment.

"The leader of the ultra-right is responsible for crimes, violence, destruction, [loss of] human lives. He planned it. He's a pawn of the gringos [Americans], not just now, but from very young. He has a messianic vision, that he was born to be a leader, the president of Venezuela," he said. "He has to pay, and he's going to pay. Justice must be done."

López, 43, and his supporters say he is a scapegoat for spontaneous protests that erupted out of frustration with a dictatorial government, failed economic policies, wasted oil revenues, and daily hardships from product shortages to soaring prices.

Fluent in English and from a wealthy family, U.S.-educated López, while treated as a hero in the wealthy Chacaco district of Caracas where he lives and was once mayor, was unable to ignite poorer sectors against Maduro who casts himself as the political "son" of Hugo Chávez, his predecessor.

Reuters