Anti-Chavez strike leader arrested on treason charges

A leader of the opposition movement against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela was being held at the secret police headquarters in Caracas yesterday after his arrest at gunpoint late on Wednesday on charges of treason and criminal conspiracy.

Secret police (Disip) and military intelligence officers detained Carlos Fernandez, president of the leading business association, Fedecamaras, when he left a Caracas restaurant, the organisation's vice-president, Albis Munoz, said. Gunshots were fired into the air as he was hauled off.

"We demand that the government guarantee his safety," Ms Munoz said, adding that Mr Fernandez had been "practically kidnapped".

Mr Fernandez was one of three main leaders of the two-month-long strike against the government of President Chavez, which began on 2 December. Mr Chavez has accused leaders of the strike – which is continuing in the oil industry, the heart of the economy – of sabotage and of seeking to overthrow his government by force.

During his regular Sunday TV and radio programme, the President urged judges and public prosecutors to take action against organisers of the stoppage, referring to them as "coup plotters".

The opposition claims that Mr Chavez, who was twice elected with large majorities, is turning the country into a dictatorship, ruining its economy and violating the new, 1999 constitution.

The other two strike leaders – Carlos Ortega of the main trade union confederation, the CTV, and Juan Fernandez, a former oil industry executive – have been warned to turn themselves in or face arrest.

Mr Ortega went into hiding after describing the arrest of Mr Fernandez as a "terrorist act", according to his fellow CTV leader Manuel Cova.

Speaking to a Venezuelan radio station, Mr Cova said Mr Ortega was in hiding because, "we cannot allow the government to humiliate him ... as of now the rule of law does not exist in Venezuela, and neither the life of Carlos Fernandez nor that of Carlos Ortega can be guaranteed".

Government spokesmen were slow to comment yesterday, and the human rights ombudsman, German Mundarain, did not return calls. But the judge who claims to have issued the arrest warrant for Carlos Fernandez, Maikel Jose Moreno, listed charges against him. These include treason, rebellion and criminal conspiracy.

Tarek William Saab, a congressman and former human rights activist, said he understood from "unofficial" sources the charges against Mr Fernandez related to "sabotage carried out in the oil industry and calls for a tax strike [among] a series of alleged offences the country is aware of [which took place] between December and January."

According to spokesmen for Fedecamaras, the armed men who detained the business leader presented neither identification nor an arrest warrant.

They fired into the air to disperse a small crowd before taking Mr Fernandez to the headquarters of Disip, the secret police. Sonia Fernandez, the business leader's wife, said she was able to speak to him, that he was physically unharmed and was in talks with his lawyers yesterday.

Leaders of the opposition umbrella group, the Democratic Co-ordinator, were quick to condemn the arrest as arbitrary and illegal. They announced a 15-minute stoppage at midday and a protest march called for yesterday afternoon.

The arrest of Mr Fernandez was made only days after the torture and murder, in circumstances that have yet to be clarified, of three soldiers and a young woman involved in a four-month anti-government protest by military officers in a Caracas square.

The New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch has called on the government to run a full and impartial investigation of the murders and to protect a teenage witness who was also seriously injured.

The four victims were found in the suburbs of Caracas with hands tied and faces wrapped with tape. Darwin Arguello, Angel Salas and Felix Pinto and Zaida Peraza, 25, an opposition activist, had multiple bullet wounds and showed signs of torture, police forensic scientists said.

The killings coincided with the signing of an anti-violence accord between government and opposition after three months of talks chaired by Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organisation of American States.