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Venezuelan opposition leader Lopez ends hunger strike

By Tomas Monzon
Opposition leader Leopoldo López' wife, Lilian Tintori, celebrated the end to the hunger strike (#HuelgaXLibertad) on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Lilian Tintori/Twitter
Opposition leader Leopoldo López' wife, Lilian Tintori, celebrated the end to the hunger strike (#HuelgaXLibertad) on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Lilian Tintori/Twitter

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 24 (UPI) -- Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez ended his prison hunger strike pn Tuesday after the government issued a December 6 date for congressional elections.

The date was announced Monday by the President of Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, who said that the Council always intended to make the congressional elections happen.

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The Venezuelan constitution says that new members of the National Assembly must take power on January 5, 2016.

Tintori tweeted the news of the end to the hunger strike on Tuesday.

A letter from Lopez addressed to his wife Lilian Tintori claimed the government's decision to set a date for the elections to be a joint achievement for himself and a hundred other hunger strikers.

The U.S. also lauded the date as a positive step for South American country.

On Monday, 29 days after Lopez announced his hunger strike through a video filmed inside his jail cell, protesters took to the street to demand the election dates, the release of all political prisoners and the end of media censorship.

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In his letter, Lopez thanked his fellow strikers and said that suspending the hunger strike would ensure their health for the struggle ahead.

Lopez, who is the leader of the Popular Will party and was the mayor of Venezuelan municipality Chacao, was imprisoned in February 2014 on charges of inciting anti-government violence and has been held in the Ramo Verde military prison outside Caracas since then.

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