(Tribune News Service) — Venezuelan opposition deputy and former political prisoner Gilber Caro was arrested on Monday by Miami police after fleeing the scene of a fatal car accident in which he was involved.
Caro, a member of former opposition leader Juan Guaido’s party, Voluntad Popular, is being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He was detained after running away from the scene of the Monday morning accident, where a 29-year-old man died and a woman sustained injuries.
According to the police report, the driver who died ran a red light at Southwest Eighth Street while heading south on Southwest 42nd Avenue, aka LeJeune Road, at 3:40 a.m. Caro, who was driving a 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV west on Southwest Eighth Street, hit the victim’s 2013 Hyundai Sonata, which was redirected to the southwest corner of the intersection and collided with another car and then onto a palm tree.
The Hyundai wound up partially in the parking lot of the Walgreens at 4200 SW Eighth St.
The victim was declared dead at the scene by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. The arrest report said Caro ran away, leaving his SUV in the middle of Southwest Eighth Street.
Caro was living in Miami after being arrested on three different occasions by the Caracas regime. He had initially been accused of treason as well as of possession of military weapons and U.S. currency. The judge who ordered that arrest later admitted it had been issued under trumped-up charges and apologized to the opposition leader before defecting to Colombia.
The arrests were made while Caro was serving as a member of the Venezuelan National Assembly, even though his position gave him immunity from prosecution.
Herald staff writer David J. Neal contributed to this story.
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