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Venezuelan opposition leader returns from self-imposed exile and is immediately arrested

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2006 file photo, Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales gives a news conference at a hotel in Caracas, Venezuela. The former governor, who had been living in exile in 2009, was arrested when he returned to Venezuela on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015 and is expected to appear in a Caracas court later in the day. Rosales ran for president in 2006 and lost to Hugo Chavez. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero, File) (The Associated Press)

Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales, center, stand as he waits to leave a plane after it landed at La Chinita airport in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015. Rosales a former governor, who had been living in exile since 2009, was arrested when he returned to Venezuela and is expected to appear in a Caracas court later in the day. Rosales ran for president in 2006 and lost to Hugo Chavez. (AP Photo/Jhair Torres) (The Associated Press)

Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales, left, gets ready to leave a plane after it landed at La Chinita airport in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015. Rosales a former governor, who had been living in exile, was arrested when he returned to Venezuela and is expected to appear in a Caracas court later in the day. Rosales ran for president in 2006 and lost to Hugo Chavez. (AP Photo/Jhair Torres) (The Associated Press)

A Venezuelan opposition leader who had been living in self-imposed exile has been arrested after returning to the socialist South American country.

Former Gov. Manuel Rosales returned to Venezuela on Thursday after six years as a fugitive. He was arrested by intelligence police who met him at the airport and was expected to appear in a Caracas court later in the day.

Before his arrest, Rosales vowed to continue fighting the country's 16-year-old socialist administration.

Rosales was governor of the western state of Zulia, where he returned Thursday. He ran for president in 2006 and lost to Hugo Chavez.

He went into exile in 2009, fleeing to Peru and then Panama after prosecutors accused him of stealing public money. He says the charges are false and politically motivated.