Venezuela to Charge Jailed Opposition Mayor

Venezuelan prosecutors planned Friday to charge the capital's mayor with a violent plot against the socialist government, one day after intelligence agents stormed his office and hauled him to jail.

Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma will be booked for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy "to organize and carry out violent acts against the government," the attorney general's office said in a statement.

President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused the opposition of trying to topple him several times in the past, said late Thursday that the mayor was detained over a coup plot financed by the United States.

Washington dismissed the claims as "baseless and false."

The top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson, wrote on Twitter Friday that her government was "deeply concerned by the escalation of intimidation against the opposition by the government of Venezuela."

She called on Venezuela to free opposition leaders "as they have been unjustly imprisoned and to improve respect for human rights."

Ledezma's arrest came nearly a year to the day of that of Leopoldo Lopez, an opposition leader detained amid fierce protests against Maduro that left dozens dead.

Ledezma, 59, was first elected in 2009, but many of his powers have been stripped by the central government over the years.