Local media reports that former Venezuelan opposition leader Carlos Ortega, escaped from a military prison on Sunday night.It is reported Ortega escaped along with three ex-military officers from a prison in Ramo Verde, about 50 kilometres south of Caracas.
All had been in prison accused of conspiring against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Ortega was sentenced to 15 yearsand 11 months in prison for leading a national worker's strike against Chavez in late 2002, as well as for leading an aborted coupattempt earlier in the year.
There are suggestions from the escapees lawyers that the men were actually forced out of prison in order to have them assassinated.
