One of President Hugo Chavez's most threatening enemies is on the loose, and many Venezuelans wonder what new plots he has in mind.
Carlos Ortega escaped from a military prison over the weekend, and troops and police were ordered to guard ports, airports and embassies to prevent him from fleeing or seeking asylum. But those who know the 60-year-old Ortega think he might stay in hopes of reviving anti-Chavez protests before presidential elections in December.
"Carlos has always been a fighting man," Edgar Zambrano, an opposition politician who recently visited him in prison, said Monday. "I imagine if he decided to escape from prison, he's doing it to stay in the country and, while in hiding, begin a frontal fight against the regime."
A union leader who led a crippling national strike against Chavez and later became what many consider Venezuela's most prominent political prisoner, Ortega slipped out of the Ramo Verde prison west of Caracas, where he was serving a 16-year sentence for civil rebellion. Three convicted military officers also escaped.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_prison_escape&printer=1
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