By Dan Molinski
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- A Venezuelan opposition leader and one-time presidential candidate said he was taken into custody Monday night by the authorities for saying Venezuela facilitates drug-trafficking.
Globovision Television station cameras showed Oswaldo Alvarez, the former governor of the oil-rich state of Zulia and outspoken critic of President Hugo Chavez, being escorted out of his home by what appeared to be plain-clothes police.
Government authorities were not immediately available to confirm the detention or any charges. However, the Attorney General's office last week said it was investigating Alvarez for comments he made earlier in the month on an anti-Chavez television program called "Hello, Citizen."
During an interview on the show March 8, Alvarez said, "Venezuela has turned into an operations center that facilitates the business of drug-trafficking."
That statement and others are being investigated for the possible crime of "instigating hate" against the people and institutions of the country, the Attorney General's office said in its statement last week.
As he was being led out of his house Monday, Alvarez told television cameras he owns up to the statements he made, and said he had no doubt that he was being detained as a political prisoner.
"Sooner or later, justice will prevail," he said.
Critics of Chavez, a socialist who has ruled this oil-rich South American nation for 11 years, accuse him of trumping up charges against his political rivals as a way of silencing them.
Chavez often responds by holding up a copy of the country's Constitution, which he usually carries with him, and saying that his government is merely following the letter of the law.
-By Dan Molinski, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-414-120-5738; dan.molinski@dowjones.com