Barely out of hiding, one of the opposition leaders María Corina Machado was briefly arrested this Thursday after a demonstration against the regime which will reinstall outgoing President Nicolas Maduro this Friday.
Tension was high this Thursday in Venezuela on the eve of the swearing-in of outgoing President Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election was contested by many countries around the world.
While she had just participated in a giant demonstration in Caracas, the capital, Maria Corina Machado, 57, one of the leading figures of the protest movement, was arrested by the Venezuelan regime’s police.
Ms. Machado had been living in hiding since last August. According to her entourage, the dissident was “violently intercepted as she left the demonstration” by motorbike. Shots were fired.
She was later released.
Maria Corina Machado had decided to reappear in public to call for freedom and defend the candidate Edmundo Gonzalezconsidered the real winner of the presidential election last July.
Venezuelans have also moved en masse abroad such as to New York, Madrid, Buenos Aires and Brussels.
The ousted candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutiatraveling in the Dominican Republic (after a stopover notably in Argentina and the United States), wanted to send a message of hope: “We will all see each other very soon in Caracas, in freedom”he declared.
Edmundo González Urrutia once again denounced the kidnapping of his son-in-lawRafael Tudares, which dates back 48 hours. On social media, Mr. González demanded information on the location and state of health of Mr. Tudares, calling the act a flagrant violation of human rights. “I strongly condemn these political reprisals against my family and against those who have disappeared in recent days,” he wrote on intimidating his father.
While the opposition mobilized this Thursday, the Chavista regime also organized counter-demonstrations in Caracas to support Nicoalas Maduro in a context marked by a wave of arrests.
