Deadly Siege of Venezuela Rebels Led by Former Action Hero Transfixes Country<br />"They don’t want us to surrender, they want us dead!" the rebel leader, Óscar Pérez, shouts<br />in one of a series of videos posted on Twitter that showed him bloodied and under siege.<br />In a later video, posted after daybreak, Mr. Pérez turns the camera outside, where government officials can be seen calling up to him.<br />Mr. Pérez rose to fame last year during street protests against President Nicolás<br />Maduro as a daring dissident police officer revolting against the government.<br />Venezuelans: Freedom forever!" In one of the last messages, Mr. Pérez appears exhausted.<br />"We’re negotiating with the officials and the prosecutors," he says calmly into the camera in one of the first messages, appearing in a dark room.<br />On Monday, a video attributed to Mr. Pérez’s mother was posted on Twitter in which she pleaded with the government to allow him to surrender.
