The mayor of Venezuela’s capital was arrested during a raid carried out by more than 150 intelligence agents, his office told CNN en Español on Thursday.
Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma was taken to the Venezuelan intelligence service headquarters, according to his office, which did not know the reason.
The state prosecutor’s office said it had no information about the raid. A high-level Venezuelan military source with knowledge of the situation confirmed Ledezma’s arrest, telling CNN en Español the mayor was taken into custody because of his alleged involvement in a coup plot.
Last week, after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused him of involvement in a plot to overthrow his government, Ledezma denied the accusation, calling it the government’s latest attempt to manufacture controversy inside the opposition.
Ledezma is a well known opposition politician. In 2009, he staged a hunger strike to protest the political tactics of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
A Twitter post from the mayor’s account Thursday evening said his office had been surrounded by police.
About 90 minutes later, another tweet from the account, purportedly written by the mayor’s wife, said he had been beaten and detained without any arrest warrant.
“I hold Maduro responsible for the life of my husband,” the tweet said.
In a national broadcast Thursday night, Maduro repeated his accusations that his government had blocked a U.S.-backed opposition coup plot that included plans to attack the presidential palace with a military jet.
“Enough already with vampires who conspire against peace,” he said.
Maduro’s accusations sparked a sharp response last week from the U.S. State Department, which called them “ludicrous.”
“We’ve seen many times that the Venezuelan government tries to distract from its own actions by blaming the United States or other members of the international community for events inside Venezuela,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.