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.