Leopoldo López Update: Government Presents Charges Against Opposition Leader

Court hearings in the case of Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López continued on Tuesday after an 11-hour session on Monday. The attorney general’s office presented an array of charges against López including arson, public instigation to rebellion and violence, property damages and criminal association, which could land the conservative Popular Will party leader as many as 10 years behind bars. The court is expected to decide today whether he will be released on bail or remain in jail during his trial.

After student protests over impunity in a small Andean city near the border with Colombia spilled over into demonstrations against a wider range of objections to the government, spreading to cities across the country, López -- a Kenyon -- and Harvard-educated economist and former mayor of the upscale Caracas municipality of Chacao -- helped rally non-students in marches where protestors called for president Nicolás Maduro’s resignation. When those protests turned violent, he was arrested under charges including murder and terrorism, which have since been dropped.

Since his arrest, he’s been held at the Ramo Verde military prison outside of Caracas. His wife says he had not been allowed visitation rights for three weeks, and on Monday she was denied access to the courthouse where his hearing was taking place. His attorneys say that the government has engaged in a “systematic violation of human rights” against him, and other supporters demand his release, saying the government seeks to stifle political dissent. Maduro and his allies in the government accuse López of attempting a coup by leading marches demanding his exit from office.