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Opposition politician in Venezuela to face chargesAFP CARACAS -- Venezuela on Saturday ordered opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez and his mother to show up at the prosecutor's office to face charges for “presumed irregularities” dating from 1998.
February 18, 2013, 11:42 am TWN Lopez, 41, and his mother 66 year-old Antonieta Mendoza de Lopez, are accused of “presumed irregularities” concerning donations made by the state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to the Civil Association Justice First, a group that Lopez founded. The group became a political party in 2000. Both have been ordered to appear at the prosecutor's office to be charged, the prosecution said in a statement, without detailing the charges. Lopez, a charismatic politician with a winning smile, has led the center-right Popular Will party since 2009. In 2005, the office of the Comptroller General accused him of corruption and banned him from politics until 2014 for allegedly receiving illegal money from PDVSA and swindling money when he was mayor of the wealthy Caracas neighborhood of Cachao. The cases were never brought to trial, and the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) declared the Venezuelan ruling invalid.
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