by Our Foreign Desk

UP TO 3,000 people marched peacefully in Caracas at the weekend demanding the release of Venezuelan opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Daniel Ceballos, who have been in jail for more than a year.

The two former mayors are being held on charges of inciting violent anti-government protests last year and responsibility for the 43 deaths that resulted.

Both men claim to have started hunger strikes in the run-up to the march, which was said by the Wall Street Journal to have attracted “tens of thousands” of marchers. Both the BBC and Sky suggested a more modest 3,000.

The marchers held up photographs of their leaders in prison uniform.

Protesters also urged the release of former Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma.

Pro-Washington politicians former Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga and former Colombian president Andres Pastrana were on hand to protest at having been denied visits to Mr Lopez and Mr Ceballos.

The march, called by Mr Lopez via a video recorded in his cell, was very small by Venezuelan standards, largely because the fragmented MUD opposition coalition had withheld its backing, reflecting sharp tactical divisions.

He had urged participants to wear white as a symbol of peace, but President Nicolas Maduro took no chances, warning the politicised police in Caracas on Friday that their commanders would be jailed if they allowed violent disorder to break out.

Interior Minister Gustavo Gonzalez thanked the Colombian authorities at the weekend for extraditing Leiver Padilla, who is the prime suspect in last October’s murder of United Socialist Party deputy Robert Serra and his partner Maria Herrera.