A court in Venezuela has ordered the arrest of an opposition leader after violence in Caracas that claimed three lives.  The streets of the capital were calm a day after the trouble, as most people stayed home after the melee.

“Without a doubt, the violence was created by small groups coordinated, exalted and financed by Leopoldo Lopez,” said Jorge Rodriguez, mayor of the Libertador district of Caracas where the violence took place.  The fatalities reportedly included two student protesters, and one community activist from a militantly pro-government neighborhood in the poor west end of Caracas.

Descended from a long line of Venezuelan elites, the US-educated Lopez had been organizing protests in the area for weeks before Thursday’s gun battles.  He’s hunkered down with his attorneys in the wealthy eastern section of Caracas, plotting his next move.

“We won’t retreat and we can’t retreat because this is about our future, about our children, about millions of people,” Lopez told international reporters.

President Nicolas Maduro says Lopez was trying to reproduce the atmosphere that led to the failed coup against then-President Hugo Chavez 12 years ago.