CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities have launched a legal assault on the country's top opposition leaders, helping leftist President Hugo Chavez consolidate his grip on the OPEC nation.
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Nearly all of the country's best-known anti-Chavez politicians are now either under indictment or facing investigation in what the opposition says are political witch-hunts but the government calls simple corruption probes.
Venezuela's top opposition leader went into hiding and a prominent former Chavez ally was arrested last week as the combative ex-tank soldier critics call a dictator-in-the-making moves to protect his self-styled revolution from potential challengers.
After winning a February referendum that allows him to run for reelection as often as he likes, an invigorated Chavez stripped control of ports and roads from opposition governors and mayors who won key posts in a 2008 regional vote.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2009/04/06/venezuela_cracks_down_on_anti_chavez_leaders/