Antonio Ledezma
3rd Metropolitan Mayor of Caracas
In office
1 December 2008 – 19 February 2015
Preceded byJuan Barreto
Succeeded byHelen Fernández
3rd Mayor of Libertador Municipality
In office
1995–2000
Preceded byAristóbulo Istúriz
Succeeded byFreddy Bernal
Personal details
Born
Antonio José Ledezma Díaz

(1955-05-01) 1 May 1955
San Juan de los Morros, Guárico, Venezuela
Political partyFearless People's Alliance
SpouseMitzy Capriles
ChildrenVanessa Ledezma, Victor Ledezma, Mitzy Ledezma y Antonietta Ledezma
ResidenceCaracas
Alma materUniversidad Santa María
Websitehttps://www.antonioledezmav.com/

Antonio José Ledezma Díaz (born 1 May 1955)[1] is a Venezuelan lawyer, opposition politician and former political prisoner. After unsuccessfully challenging for the leadership of Democratic Action in 1999, he founded a new party, the Fearless People's Alliance.[1]

Political history

After involvement in politics in his home state of Guárico in the 1970s for Democratic Action, he served two terms in the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies (from 1984),[1] and was elected to the Venezuelan Senate in 1994.[1] He then served as mayor of the Libertador Municipality (1996–2000) of the Venezuelan Capital District, having been appointed governor of the now-defunct Federal District (1992–1993) by Carlos Andrés Pérez.[1]

In 2000, he founded the political party Fearless People's Alliance after leaving Democratic Action. During the 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt against Hugo Chávez, Ledezma was seen on television with a list of 200 chavista officials that he sought to have arrested.[2] He also served as the head of Coordinadora Democrática,[3] which led the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003 in an effort to force new presidential elections. In preparation for the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum, he presented the list of signature collection centers to the National Electoral Council that would be used to demand a recall on Chávez's presidency.[4] Following the failed recall effort, Ledezma left Coordinadora Democrática, and said he would boycott the 2005 Venezuelan parliamentary election, accusing the Chávez government of preparing a fraudulent election.[5]

Mayor of Caracas

In 2008, he challenged pro-government PSUV and Fatherland for All candidate Aristóbulo Istúriz in the 2008 Caracas mayoral election and won. Subsequent to his election, the Venezuelan National Assembly passed a Capital District Law on April 30, 2009, that transferred most functions, funding, and personnel of the Metropolitan Mayor of Caracas to a new Venezuelan Capital District (headed by Jacqueline Faría, an official directly appointed by Hugo Chávez) covering in particular the political center of Caracas and the municipality of Libertador. A legal challenge was filed and a request was filed with the National Electoral Council to hold a referendum, but this did not stop the transfer. The opposition described the move as a deliberate negation of the popular vote, while Chávez supporters described the political and budgetary reorganization as an "act of justice" for Libertador, the largest and poorest of the five municipalities making up Caracas.[6] Following the removal of such power, Ledezma began a hunger strike that drew international attention.[7]

La Salida

In 2014, Ledezma was one of the main leaders of La Salida,[8] a protest movement that called for the removal of President Nicolás Maduro from office.[9][10][11][12][13]

Arrest

On February 19, 2015, he was detained by the Bolivarian Intelligence Service at his office in the EXA Tower in Caracas. In the operation, the security forces made warning shots to the air to disperse a crowd that was forming. He was then transported to SEBIN's headquarters in Plaza Venezuela. His lawyer declared that the charges for his detention were unknown.[14][15][16][17][18] Ledezma was arrested by the Venezuelan Government after accusations made by President Nicolás Maduro about an "American plot to overthrow the government" that he presented a week before Ledezma's arrest.[19] Ledezma mocked the accusations stating that the Venezuelan government was destabilizing itself through corruption.[7] The United States rejected the accusations by President Maduro and stated that "Venezuela’s problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent".[19] He was imprisoned in Ramo Verde military jail. Two months later, he was sent back home for health reasons, where he had been placed under house arrest and unable to express himself publicly.[20]

Response to arrest

Demonstrations

Wall painting in Caracas demanding Ledezma's release.

Following the news of the arrest of Ledezma, his supporters quickly created protests and called the arrest a "kidnapping" and that the coup conspiracy was created for political purposes.[19] Hours after the news broke, hundreds of Ledezma supporters gathered in a Caracas plaza to denounce his arrest.[19] Protesters also gathered outside of the SEBIN headquarters.[15]

Human rights groups

Amnesty International condemned Ledezma's arrest calling it politically motivated, noting the similar cases of arrests made by the Venezuelan Government in what Amnesty International described as "silencing dissenting voices".[21] Human Rights Watch demanded his release with Human Rights Watch's Americas division director, Jose Miguel Vivanco, stating that without evidence, Ledezma "faces another case of arbitrary detention of opponents in a country where there is no judicial independence".[19][22]

Trial

In March 2015, former socialist Prime Minister of Spain, Felipe González, agreed to take over the defense of Ledezma in his trial after Ledezma's family requested his assistance.[23]

Escape from house arrest

On November 17, 2017, Ledezma slipped past guards and fled to Colombia. He departed the same day from El Dorado International Airport to Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain. Upon landing he declared he would continue his fight of opposition to the Venezuelan government and was reunited with his family.

Exile

Ledezma signed the Madrid Charter, a document drafted by the conservative Spanish political party Vox that describes left-wing groups as enemies of Ibero-America involved in a "criminal project" that are "under the umbrella of the Cuban regime".[24][25] In October 2023, the Venezuelan government called for the extradition of Ledezma.[26]

Awards and recognition

  • 2010 – Finalist for the 2010 World Mayor prize.[27]
  • 2015 – National Endowment for Democracy awarded Ledezma its Democracy Award in May 2015.[28]
  • 2015 – Cádiz Cortes Ibero-American Freedom Prize was awarded "given the unblemished defense of freedom in your community and minimum requirements of the realization of human rights in the same, which has led them to be subject to public rebuke of their government, including the flagrant situation of imprisonment or the cutting of your minimal civil rights".[29]
  • 2016 Courage Award, Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, shared with Leopoldo Lopez, "for inspiring the world with their extraordinary courage in the defense of liberty and universal human rights."[30]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Stevens, Andrew (19 July 2009). "Antonio Ledezma, Mayor of Caracas: Fighting to maintain cities' influence". City Mayors Foundation. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  2. ↑ Dominguez, Francisco (2011). "Chapter 7 - Venezuela's opposition: desperately seeking to overthrow Chávez". Right-Wing Politics in the New Latin America: Reaction and Revolt. Zed Books. ISBN 9781848138148.
  3. ↑ Olson, Alexandra (6 January 2003). "Chavez insists Venezuela oil industry rebounding". Associated Press. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  4. ↑ Sanchez, Fabiola (6 October 2003). "Oposición venezolana reúne firmas contra Chávez el 24 de octubre". Associated Press. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  5. ↑ Libre, Diario (22 September 2004). "Oposición a Chávez sufre otro revés por división". Diario Libre (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  6. ↑ Jeremy Morgan. "Caracas Metromayor's 'Political Defenestration' All But Complete in Venezuela". Latin American Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 14 April 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2009.
  7. 1 2 "Opposition leaders in Venezuela call for rally to protest Caracas mayor arrest". Fox News. 20 February 2015. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "Quién es Antonio Ledezma, el alcalde opositor arrestado por el gobierno de Venezuela" [Who es Antonio Ledezma, the opposition mayor arrested by the Venezuelan government] (in Spanish). BBC Mundo. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  9. ↑ "Detailed findings of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela" (PDF). United Nations Human Rights Council. 15 September 2020. p. 14. In January 2014, in a context of economic decline, inflation and widespread insecurity in the country, a group of opposition leaders initiated a campaign to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office. The effort was referred to as "The Exit" ("La Salida").
  10. ↑ Bellaviti, Sean (May 2021). "La Hora de la Salsa : Nicolás Maduro and the Political Dimensions of Salsa in Venezuela". Journal of Latin American Studies. 53 (2): 373–396. doi:10.1017/S0022216X21000237. Dubbed 'La Salida' (The Exit) by members of the opposition who called for Maduro's ousting
  11. ↑ "Venezuela: Tipping Point". Crisis Group Latin America Briefing. International Crisis Group (30): 10. 21 May 2014. López joined forces with Caracas metropolitan mayor Antonio Ledezma of the Courageous People Alliance (ABP) and independent congresswoman María Corina Machado in early 2014 in 'La Salida' to demand a change of government. This move was frowned on by the moderates in the MUD. Capriles, whose ability to appeal to disaffected chavistas had helped broaden the opposition's voter base, saw his leadership challenged by a faction whose message seemed intended to polarise, not unite, the electorate.
  12. ↑ Scully, Emma; Tovar, Daniel A. (13 August 2015). "MUD's Murky Future in Venezuelan Politics". Council on Hemispheric Affairs. a more radical wing of the opposition, which once endorsed Capriles as MUD's presidential candidate but whose tactics have included a call for "La Salida," that is, for the "exit" of Maduro from office well before a constitutionally permitted recall referendum could be legally exercised halfway through the president's term. ... Beginning as a student movement and endorsed by López and Machado, La Salida called for the early exit of Maduro from power. ... the popular sectors, which were deeply suspicious of La Salida
  13. ↑ García-Guadilla, María Pilar; Mallen, Ana (January 2019). "Polarization, Participatory Democracy, and Democratic Erosion in Venezuela's Twenty-First Century Socialism". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 681 (1): 62–77. doi:10.1177/0002716218817733. La Salida (the Exit), which emerged from divisions within the opposition. The La Salida protests began in February 2014, promoted mainly by two opposition political parties: Voluntad Popular, led by Leopoldo López, and VENTE, led by Maria Corina Machado; they lasted four months. The protesters, mainly young students, rejected President Maduro's legitimacy and hoped to force him to resign. This "insurrectional" strategy resulted in a high number of deaths, injuries, and arrests due to severe repression by the police and the uncontrolled violent government-allied gangs known as the Colectivos. La Salida also divided the opposition, represented in the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática), over the timing, objectives, and strategies of the protests, such as the use of violent guarimbas versus electoral mobilization.
  14. ↑ "Venezuela on the Brink". PrimePair. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  15. 1 2 Sabin, Lamiat (20 February 2015). "Mayor Antonio Ledezma arrested and dragged out of office 'like a dog' by police in Venezuela". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  16. ↑ "Sebin detuvo al alcalde Metropolitano Antonio Ledezma". El Universal. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  17. ↑ "Sebin se lleva detenido al alcalde Antonio Ledezma". La Patilla. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  18. ↑ "Detuvieron al alcalde Antonio Ledezma". El Nacional. Archived from the original on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Gupta, Girish; Robles, Frances (20 February 2015). "Caracas Mayor Arrested on Sedition Accusation, Plunging Venezuela into New Crisis". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  20. ↑ "Antonio Ledezma, alcalde de Caracas, cumplió dos años preso [Antonio Ledezma, mayor of Caracas, served two years in prison]". 19 February 2017.
  21. ↑ "Amnesty International deplores actions against Mayor Ledezma". El Universal. 20 February 2015. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  22. ↑ Vyas, Kejal (19 February 2015). "Caracas Mayor Detained By State Agents Antonio Ledezma, fierce critic of President Nicolás Maduro, taken away by armed agents". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  23. ↑ Prados, Luis (23 March 2015). "Felipe González defenderá a líderes opositores presos en Venezuela". El País. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  24. ↑ "Carta de Madrid". Fundación Disenso (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  25. ↑ "Abascal promueve una carta con políticos americanos contra el comunismo". EFE (in European Spanish). 26 October 2020. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  26. ↑ "La dictadura de Nicolás Maduro volvió a pedir la extradición de Antonio Ledezma desde España". infobae (in European Spanish). 6 October 2023. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  27. ↑ "World Mayor: World Mayor 2010 - Vote". www.worldmayor.com. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  28. ↑ Riley Jacobsen, Jane. "Venezuelan Political Prisoners are winners of NED's 2015 Democracy Award". National Endowment for Democracy. Archived from the original on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.
  29. ↑ "López, Ledezma y Machado galardonados con el Premio Libertad Cortes de Cádiz". El Nacional. 12 June 2015. Archived from the original on 14 June 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  30. ↑ "Jailed Venezuelan Opposition Leaders Antonio Ledezma & Leopoldo Lopez Win 2016 Courage Award from 25 NGOs at Geneva Summit Held at UN". GenevaSummit.org.
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