Venezuela’s popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, was briefly detained by her adversaries during an antigovernment protest in Caracas on Thursday, according to a statement on X by a political aide. But she was soon released. Ms. Machado was “violently intercepted as she left the gathering,” her party said on X. “Regime troops shot at the motorcycles that were transporting her.”
Thousands turned out to support Ms. Machado at an event in Caracas on Thursday, all risking government detention. There, the opposition leader stood atop a truck while supporters shouted, “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”
During her brief detention, “she was forced to record several videos and was later released,” her political aide, Magalli Meda, said. “In the next few hours she herself will be the one to address the country to explain what happened.”
Representatives for Ms. Machado declined to say who detained her. The event was full of government security forces, who are often backed by members of armed gangs known as colectivos.
Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, speaking in a television interview, called the capture “a lie” and accused the opposition of inventing it to attract attention.
The country’s opposition, as well as the United States and other countries, say that Mr. Maduro had stolen a recent election and that the real winner was Edmundo González, a former diplomat who has Ms. Machado’s backing.
Mr. González has been living in exile since September.
Before her detention, Ms. Machado told her followers, “This force that we have built and that grows every day has prepared us for this final phase.”
“Whatever they do tomorrow,” she said of the Maduro inauguration, “they’ve just buried themselves!”
About 2,000 people have been detained in Venezuela since the July 28 election, including, in recent days, Mr. González’s son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, as well as Carlos Correa, the director of a high-profile nonprofit organization, Espacio Público.
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