CARACAS, Venezuela — The authorities have jailed the mayors of two cities that have experienced some of the most intense unrest in a wave of protests that has shaken the country in recent weeks. The arrests came as the National Assembly called for a criminal investigation of a prominent opposition lawmaker on charges related to the demonstrations.
The intelligence police on Wednesday arrested Daniel Ceballos, the mayor of San Cristóbal, a city near the western border with Colombia where the protests began in early February. Many parts of San Cristóbal have been virtually shut down for weeks by demonstrators manning barricades, and clashes between residents and security forces are common.
Mr. Ceballos was arrested during a trip to Caracas, the capital. The justice minister, Miguel Rodríguez, said that the mayor had been taken into custody on a judicial order after citizens filed court papers accusing him of failing to take appropriate measures, like picking up garbage, to keep the city functioning during the protests.
Mr. Ceballos belongs to the Popular Will party, headed by Leopoldo López, a former mayor of a wealthy section of Caracas. Mr. López was jailed on President Nicolás Maduro’s orders over a month ago on charges of instigating violence.
The other mayor, Enzo Scarano, who leads a municipality within the nation’s third-largest city, Valencia, was also jailed on Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled that he had not carried out an order to remove barricades set up by protesters. The court sentenced him to more than 10 months in jail and ordered him removed from office.
In a televised speech, Mr. Maduro vowed, “There will be justice here, and no one and nothing is going to undermine the will for justice of the Venezuelan state and society.”
Mr. Maduro calls the protesters fascists and has taken to mocking them and opposition politicians with references to the horror movie character Chucky, a murderous doll. On Thursday he referred to a group of opposition leaders, including Mr. López, in this way: “This man who is in prison, Chucky-crazy, Chucky-prisoner, the other Chucky, Chucky-chucky, Chucky-chucka, this Chucky, Chucky-lookie.”
He called Mr. Ceballos “this murderer we now have in prison” and accused Mr. Scarano of openly supporting a coup.
Also this week, the National Assembly, which is controlled by Mr. Maduro’s Socialist Party, asked the national prosecutor to investigate the opposition lawmaker María Corina Machado, a close ally of Mr. López’s.
The protests began with student demonstrations over violent crime and soon expanded to express complaints about a crippled economy and frustration over the Socialist Party’s monopoly control of all branches of government.
Students held a rally in Caracas on Thursday to protest the arrests of the mayors. When they tried to march to a nearby university, they were blocked by the police and soldiers.
“By arresting the mayors, the government is throwing more fuel on the fire,” said Gabriela Sariegui, 22, an engineering student.
María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting.