Nelson Ponce de Leon, a Venezuelan priest also known simply as Ponce, on Tuesday accused the Venezuelan government of “persecution” and “terror” after his excommunication for his opposition to Venezuela’s socialist president and the country’s socialist regime.

In a rare public appearance, Ponce condemned what he called “the Maduro regime” and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro even warned on Thursday against “any attempt to stop me from speaking.”

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Ponce de Leon, a former member of the Venezuelan opposition, has led a campaign against the country’s socialist government in recent months, after it passed a new law banning the construction of any new housing or construction projects that are not approved privately.

The law became effective on January 1, and was a response to the country’s economic collapse and the growing number of violent attacks against protesters and pro-Chávez officials.

The excommunication was published in the official journal of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference on Wednesday and included a response to Ponce’s comments.

The excommunication had already been issued by the church’s General Secretary, Jorge Rodriguez Rodríguez, in May. But in a response published on Tuesday, Ponce de Leon called it “an outrageous act of violence against the Venezuelan Episcopalians” and added that he “cannot accept” the publication.

“In its most blatant and absolute form,” Ponce de Leon wrote, “a violent criminal and the right-wing opposition, the Venezuelan government, have perpetrated an institutionalizing of persecution for the very reason we all know is the core of the Venezuela human rights project: the right to be free of discrimination and social exclusion.”

In particular, Ponce de Leon criticized the government’s decision to restrict non-government organizations from distributing information on the new law that they have been lobbying for over several weeks, while they also banned government employees from distributing the petition that is the central motivation behind the legislation.

He alleged that the government’s “legalizing and legitimizing the oppression of the Venezuelan people was an open attempt to nullify the very process by which the new law was passed.”

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Ponce de Leon’s excommunication was issued not on grounds of any crimes or offenses, but because “of your refusal to accept and support religious minorities and churches, who were directly involved in the