Venezuela's Capriles: Government supporters besieged him

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said that armed supporters of the leftist national government "besieged" him and other travelers at an airport on the island of Margarita.

News of the incident came as thousands of Venezuelans staged rival protests Wednesday, with the opposition pressing for a referendum on recalling President Nicolas Maduro.

Two-time presidential candidate Capriles blamed Maduro for the airport incident, accusing him of "looking for a death."

Capriles said the others managed to get out after he intervened with airport authorities, but he was trapped for much longer.

"We were besieged for four hours by the government's armed bands," Capriles said in a video disseminated on social media site Periscope after he left the airport.

Oil giant Venezuela's once-booming economy has gone into meltdown as crude prices have crashed since mid-2014, triggering a severe financial crisis.

Outrage is mounting as the country grapples with crippling shortages of vital supplies like food and medicine, threatening Maduro and the socialist "revolution" his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, launched in 1999.

The head of the ruling socialist party, Diosdado Cabello, scoffed at Capriles' accusations.

"Since nobody pays attention to him, he charges that they are persecuting him. He's hearing voices. Who would be persecuting him," Cabello said on his weekly program on the government-run television station.

Source: AFP