Venezuela opposition security boss freed

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan authorities freed congressional president Henry Ramos' head of security on Monday after he was arrested last week on allegations of masterminding the beating of police officers, the opposition said.

President Nicolas Maduro's government had accused Coromoto Rodriguez of paying a group of youths who attacked three officers, including at least one woman, with their fists, stones and sticks during last week's opposition rally in Caracas.

"Prosecutors abstained from charging Coromoto Rodriguez because they didn't have a single proof against him," congress spokesman and Ramos aide Oliver Blanco said on Twitter, confirming the security chief's release.

Ramos' aides had said Rodriguez's arrest was an attempt to intimidate the head of the National Assembly, who is at the forefront of an opposition push to oust Maduro via a recall referendum in the South American OPEC nation.

Maduro, who won a 2013 election to replace late president Hugo Chavez, charges the opposition is seeking a coup against him with U.S. backing. He had said Rodriguez was a known "torturer" who would go to a high-security jail.

(Reporting by Corina Pons; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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