Caracas, September 15 (RHC)-- Pablo Sepúlveda Allende, grandson of late Chilean President Salvador Allende, said in an interview with teleSUR that the jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez is not a political prisoner but a criminal. 

Sepulveda spoke to teleSUR as part of its special coverage of the 43rd anniversary of Chile's 1973 coup against Allende.  He said: “Leopoldo Lopez is a criminal who tried to overthrow a legitimate elected government, calling people to social violence."  Sepulveda Allende recalled the 2014 violent protests led by Lopez that resulted in violent protests, known as the Guarimbas, which left 43 dead, over 870 injured and led to the arrests of nearly 2,500 people. 

Sepulveda Allende said that in Chile there's a misunderstanding about Lopez's role in the Venezuelan opposition, and that's the reason why some sectors of the Chilean people have supported the international campaign of his wife Lilian Tintori, who describes her husband as a “political prisoner,” and has appealed for his release. 

The Socialist activist noted that his grandfather also faced attacks from Chile's political right-wing, culminating in the overthrow of his progressive government by Chilean Army General Augusto Pinochet.  His 16-year dictatorship is considered one of the bloodiest and most repressive in modern South America. 

"Like Venezuela, Chile was exposed to destabilizing attacks by the United States, the economic war, shortages, queues, lack of medicine, strikes...,” Sepulveda said.  He also recognized that President Nicolas Maduro has had to cope with a very difficult situation since he was democratically elected in 2014. 

When asked about the recent announcement made by his aunt, the Socialist Senator Isabel Allende, who recently said she’ll run for the presidency of her party in Chile, Sepulveda said that if she becomes a candidate he will vote for political programs rather than for candidates.