Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was freed on Thursday, her Vente Venezuela movement said, shortly after she was detained amid gunshots while leaving a protest in eastern Caracas. Opposition demonstrations took place throughout the country in an 11th-hour effort to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro ahead of his third inauguration on Friday.
During her detention, an aide said, Maria Corina Machado “was forced to record several videos.” She has garnered enormous support for her opposition to Nicolás Maduro.
The Maduro government says it has arrested at least nine U.S. citizens in the months since Venezuela’s widely discredited presidential election.
The brief arrest of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado provoked swift condemnations on Thursday from political leaders across the globe, punctuated by calls for her right to free speech and personal safety.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, in office since 2013, is due to take the oath of office for a third term Friday despite a global outcry that brought thousands out in protest on the ceremony's eve.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Friday will face more international rebuke than at any time in his 12 years in power.
Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was freed on Thursday after a brief detention, her Vente Venezuela movement said on social media.
FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro delivers a speech during a meeting of leaders of the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America and the Treaty of Commerce and Promotion (ALBA-TCP), in Caracas, Venezuela December 14, 2024. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/File Photo
Two Americans have been arrested in Venezuela, with President Nicolas Maduro claiming the charges relate to an intent to "practice terrorism against the Venezuelan people."
In addition to those mentioned, there are other Spanish political parties that act as accomplices with their votes and their inaction, voting against any initiative to condemn the Maduro dictatorship and refusing to recognize the legitimate winner of the elections in Venezuela, Edmundo González. They are the following: