Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado defies Maduro to lead protests that ended with her brief arrest.
Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado is free and “in a safe place” in a bizarre episode that capped a day of protests she led seeking to block President Nicolás Maduro from clinging to power.
In a post on her official account on X, formerly Twitter, Machado said “I am now in a safe place and more determined than ever before to continue with you UNTIL THE END!”.
She also sent her best wishes to a Venezuelan citizen who was shot by who she says were the Maduro regime’s repressive forces while she was being detained.
Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado’s aides said she was detained on Thursday moments after she bid farewell to her supporters, hopped on a motorcycle and raced down a major avenue in the capital Caracas with her security convoy.
At 3:21 pm local time, Machado’s press team said in a social media post that Maduro’s forces “violently intercepted” her convoy. They later told the Associated Press that Machado was detained. International condemnation poured in from leaders in Latin America and beyond, who demanded her immediate release.
About an hour after her detention, a 20-second proof of life video of Machado emerged online, in which she said she was followed after leaving the “wonderful rally”, and had dropped her purse.
Her aides later said that the video message was coerced, and that after recording it, she was freed.
Machado said she will explain the events that unravelled in more detail on Friday.
Meanwhile, Maduro’s supporters denied Machado had been detained, and accused the opposition of trying to spread fake news to generate an international crisis.
“Nobody should be surprised,” Communications Minister Freddy Nanez said. “Especially since it’s coming from the fascists, who were the architects of the dirty trick.”
On Thursday, Machado addressed hundreds of supporters who heeded her call to take to the streets a day before the ruling party-controlled National Assembly was scheduled to swear in Maduro for a third consecutive six-year term, despite credible evidence that he lost the 28 July presidential election.
“They wanted us to fight each other, but Venezuela is united, we are not afraid,” Machado shouted from atop a truck in the capital minutes before she was reported detained.
Machado, 57, is a hard-liner and former lawmaker who stayed and fought against Maduro even after many of her allies among opposition leaders went into exile in the face of repression, joining an exodus of more than 7.7 million Venezuelans who’ve abandoned their homeland since 2013.
She was then banned by Maduro’s loyalists from running for office. In a last minute move, she backed unknown outsider, retired diplomat Edmundo González, who crushed Maduro by a more than two-to-one margin, according to voting machine records collected by the opposition and validated by international observers.
González, who demanded her immediate release upon reports of her detention, has since stated that “the fact that María Corina is free does not minimize the fact of what happened, she was kidnapped in conditions of violence.
US President-elect Donald Trump has also weighed in, in a post on his own social media platform, Truth Social, he said “these freedom fighters should not be harmed, and MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE!”.
González, who’s recognised as president-elect by many western countries including the United States, has been on a multi-country tour to drum up support for the opposition’s initiative to remove Maduro.
He’s toured the US, where he met with US President Joe Biden as well as US House Representative Michael Waltz, who’s Trump’s national security adviser designate. He’s also visited Panama and the Dominican Republic.
González has been in living in Spain in self-imposed exile since early September after he fled Venezuela following a month of hiding as Maduro’s forces cracked down on dissent.
He says he will continue to fight this injustice, alongside his political partner, Machado, until the rightful will of the Venezuelan people is delivered and Maduro is dethroned.
