Venezuelan Dissident Labor Leader Escapes From Prison
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CARACAS, Venezuela — A labor leader who led a failed national strike to oust President Chavez has escaped from prison, prompting the government to tighten security to prevent one of Venezuela’s most prominent prisoners from fleeing the country.
Carlos Ortega, who was serving a 16-year sentence for civil rebellion, escaped along with three military officers from the Ramo Verde military prison, Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez said on state television.
Troops and police were securing all ports, airports, and embassies nationwide to prevent the fugitives from fleeing or seeking asylum at a diplomatic mission, the defense minister, General Raul Baduel, told a news conference.
“This is to prevent … one of the most horrible crimes committed against Venezuela from going unpunished: a crime of conspiracy along with a coup, in which one of the leading figures was Carlos Ortega,” Mr. Rodriguez said.
Mr. Ortega, considered a political prisoner byVenezuela’s opposition, was convicted in December of civil rebellion and instigation to commit illegal
acts for his role in the 2002–03 strike that aimed to topple Mr. Chavez’s government.
The two-month strike virtually shut down oil production in the world’s no. 5 oil exporting country and cost Venezuela $7.5 billion, helping plunge the economy into one of the worst recessions in memory. Mr. Chavez refused to step down and regained control of the industry by firing almost half the work force at the state oil company.
Thousands of business owners also closed shop during the strike, but most government employees and many workers in other sectors ignored it.
The government has also linked Mr. Ortega, the leader of the million- member Venezuelan Workers Confederation, to an April 2002 coup that briefly ousted Mr. Chavez before a popular uprising helped restore him to power.
It was not the first time Mr. Ortega has slipped away from Venezuelan authorities. He fled the country after a local court ordered his arrest in 2003 and spent more than a year in exile in Costa Rica. His asylum was revoked in August 2004 after Mr. Ortega reportedly said he would return to Venezuela to work clandestinely to oust Mr. Chavez. Mr. Ortega spent months in hiding before he was arrested in Caracas in March 2005.
