Venezuela arrests over jailbreak

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Venezuelan police have arrested 59 people after a former state governor escaped from jail where he was waiting to be tried on corruption charges.

Eduardo Lapi - prominent opponent of President Hugo Chavez - had been in detention since May last year.

Police are investigating whether a cake laced with sedatives was smuggled into the prison to incapacitate guards.

Interpol and immigration authorities are on alert to prevent the former governor of Yaracuy state from fleeing.

Another Chavez opponent - Carlos Ortega - escaped from a military jail near the capital, Caracas, in August 2006.

Crawl to freedom

The fugitive made his break from San Felipe Judicial Detention Centre by climbing through an air conditioning duct, according to a report from Venezuelan TV station Globovision.

Prison guards were believed to have been bribed to help Mr Lapi's escape, Venezuelan Interior Minister Pedro Carreno said.

At least 11 of those detained are employees at the penitentiary, officials say.

Mr Lapi's lawyer, Alejandro Arzola, said the politician's human rights had been violated as he had been held without a hearing for nearly a year.

Mr Arzola said his client had received death threats and was about to be transferred to a more dangerous jail.

Mr Lapi was governor of the central-western Venezuela state from 1998 to 2004.

Last year, dissident opposition leader Carlos Ortega escaped from jail while serving a 15-year sentence for leading an oil strike against Mr Chavez in 2002.