From Jail, Venezuelan Protest Leader Urges Protesters To Keep Demonstrating

Leopoldo Lopez

(Reuters) - Venezuela's jailed protest leader urged supporters on Friday to keep demonstrating peacefully against President Nicolas Maduro despite violence that has killed six people and rocked the OPEC member nation.

"I'm fine, I ask you not to give up, I won't," Leopoldo Lopez said to his followers in a handwritten note passed to his wife at Caracas' Ramo Verde prison then posted on the Internet.

The 42-year-old Lopez, a Harvard-educated economist and one of Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar's few surviving relatives, spearheaded protests against the socialist government that began at the start of February.