The United States responded to Maduro’s bizarre suggestion yesterday that he would only release Leopoldo Lopez if the United States government freed Oscar Lopez, a Puerto Rican nationalist currently serving a 55 year sentence for seditious conspiracy.
During her daily press briefing, Department of State spokesperson Jen Psaki addressed Maduro’s comments, saying:
There’s no possible comparison between these cases… The United States reiterates its call for the liberation of all political prisoners – a call which has been repeated by many international organizations – but President Maduro proposes to exile members of the opposition instead of having a discussion about the true concerns and problems facing Venezuela.
Psaki also addressed the fact that Maduro has, on numerous occassions, referred to Leopoldo Lopez as “the monster of Ramo Verde”, seriously violating Lopez’s right to due process. Psaki said:
It’s unfortunate that someone who should have the presumption of innocence can be sentenced on national television by the president of Venezuela while the trial has yet to finish… Maduro’s comments highlight the concern we have had for a while now about the independence of the judiciary in Venezuela, the lack of due process and the use of the judicial system to silence opposition voices.
Lopez is scheduled to appear in court to continue his trial on January 13. Lopez has declined to attend all future hearings in protest of the violations against due process his case has suffered.
Maduro Re-Introduces Toll Roads
Six years after Chavez called toll roads a form of “robbery” and outlawed them, Maduro reintroduced the system last night during as speech.
Maduro said that he has ordered the re-activation of 71 toll roads throughout the country, and charged the country’s states with overseeing their operations. Maduro said:
I put my trust in the governors to work miracles on this new stage. They [the tolls] will generate resources so that they can activate beneficial plans inside every one of the states.
Adding confusion to the announcement, Minister of Terrestrial Transport Haiman El Troudi said today that the tolls would only affect transport vehicles. Public transport vehicles and presumably personal vehicles will not be affected by the tolls. El Troudi said:
Only transport vehicles will have to pay toll, and it will continue to be the case that public transportation vehicles will not have to pay.
In January of 2009, Chavez ordered all toll booths in the country removed. The rationale for the decision was expressed in a decree, which partially reads:
Eliminating tolls [comes as a result] of the complete lack of alternate, free roads… [toll booths] do not comply with the minimum distance allowed between them, and the collecting of toll fares has not met its essential goal of maintaining roads in optimal conditions.
It is unclear at this time how Maduro plans to ensure that the toll system will actually work as intended this time.
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