Venezuelan opposition politician arrested on corruption allegations

International media reports say that Venezuelan opposition politician Manuel Rosales was arrested on his return to the country after six years of self-imposed exile.

Rosales, has previously said he wanted to take part in December's parliamentary elections, but he was detained shortly after landing in the city of Maracaibo on Thursday from the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba. Rosales is expected to appear in court in Caracas shortly.

Rosales ran against the late President Hugo Chavez in 2006, but fled to Peru in 2009 amid corruption allegations, which he insists are politically motivated.

The BBC reports that Rosales is charged with corruption during his term as governor of Zulia state between 2000 and 2008, and the authorities had warned that there was an arrest warrant against him.

Las Friday, he had announced that he was planning to return to Venezuela and he posted a picture of himself boarding shortly before departing from Aruba on Twitter, captioning the image;

"With God and the Virgin Mary, preparing to go to Venezuela to meet my people again."

The country, which is facing a harsh economic crisis, goes to the polls on 6th December for the first parliamentary elections since President Nicolas Maduro was elected in 2013. The opposition blames the impending crisis on failed socialist policies of Chavez and his successor Maduro, but the government says the country has been hit by a sharp drop in international oil prices while also accusing powerful groups of boycotting the economy to destabilise Maduro.

A number of opposition leaders have also been detained since last year including prominent opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who was found guilty of inciting violence during protests in 2014 in which 43 people were killed.

Leopoldo was sentenced to 13 years and nine months in prison.