Venezuela opposition chief Maria Corina Machado has been arrested after re-appearing in public for the primary time in months a day earlier than the third inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro.
A social media account for Comando Con Venezuela, the political opposition group Machado leads, reported the arrest on Thursday.
“María Corina Machado was violently intercepted whereas leaving the gathering in Chacao,” the opposition group wrote, including that authorities forces “fired” on the bikes that have been transporting her.
It has since introduced Machado’s launch, dismissing experiences that the temporary detention was false.
Maduro’s authorities shortly denounced the incident as an effort to dent the administration’s fame.
“The tactic of media distraction shouldn’t be new, so nobody ought to be stunned. Much less so coming from fascists who’re the architects of deception,” Data Minister Freddy Nanez stated on social media platform Telegram after the experiences of Machado’s arrest emerged.
María Corina (@MariaCorinaYA) fue violentamente interceptada a su salida de la concentración en Chacao.
Esperamos confirmar en minutos su situación.
Efectivos del régimen dispararon contra las motos que la trasladaban.
— Comando ConVzla (@ConVzlaComando) January 9, 2025
Machado has been in hiding in latest months, following a authorities crackdown on dissent within the wake of the contested July 28 presidential election.
However she made a public look on Thursday, after calling on supporters to protest in a last-ditch try to dam Venezuela’s President Maduro from clinging to energy. He’s set to be sworn in for one more six-year time period on Friday.
“They wished us to battle one another, however Venezuela is united,” Machado, waving a Venezuelan flag, shouted to a couple hundred protesters from atop a truck earlier than her arrest.
Demonstrators on the rally chanted, “We’re not afraid! We’re not afraid!” Many additionally sang the Venezuelan nationwide anthem as a mark of defiance in opposition to Maduro’s authorities.
Waves of antigovernment protests broke out following the July 28 election, when the electoral authority declared Maduro the winner with out releasing the standard breakdown of voting tallies.
The opposition known as the outcome fraudulent and has as a substitute printed its personal copies of the voting tallies on-line. It says that documentation proves its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, is the rightful winner.
The Maduro authorities has responded to the outcry with what critics have denounced as heavy-handed repression. Greater than 2,000 individuals have been arrested and an estimated 25 individuals have been killed within the post-election crackdown.
Maduro has additionally accused Machado of main a conspiracy to topple him. In September, a courtroom additionally issued a warrant for Gonzalez’s arrest.
‘There’s concern’
Reporting from an anti-Maduro protest in neighbouring Colombia on Thursday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti stated Machado defied earlier threats and makes an attempt to detain her.
“The federal government has repeatedly promised that they might arrest her if she tried to indicate up at one among these protests,” Rampietti stated. He added that Machado had been in hiding since August after the Maduro authorities started its crackdown on opposition figures and protesters.
“She stated that she anticipated immediately’s protest to be historic and a option to present the world that almost all of Venezuelans need a democratic transition within the nation,” Rampietti reported.
However there was a comparatively small turnout for Thursday’s protests as riot police have been deployed in power.
“After all, there’s fewer individuals,” Miguel Contrera, an empanada vendor, advised The Related Press as Nationwide Guard troopers carrying riot shields buzzed by on bikes. “There’s concern.”
Gonzalez himself fled to Spain in September to hunt political asylum. However he has since returned to the Americas, the place he has been touring international locations resembling Argentina, Uruguay and the US to bolster his declare to victory.
He has additionally pledged to return to Venezuela. Maduro’s authorities announced a $100,000 reward for info on Gonzalez’s whereabouts within the lead-up to the inauguration.
On Thursday, Gonzalez lent his voice to the requires Machado’s freedom.
“As president-elect, I demand the quick launch of María Corina Machado,” he wrote on social media. “To the safety forces that kidnapped her, I say: Don’t play with fireplace.”
