Venezuela’s opposition says its leader María Corina Machado has been briefly arrested and then released after addressing a protest rally ahead of the disputed inauguration of President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado, 57, was “forcibly intercepted” in eastern Caracas and shots were fired at the motorcycle convoy she was riding in, the opposition said, adding that she was forced to make several videos while in custody.
Venezuelan Information Minister Freddy Nanez dismissed reports of Machado’s detention as a “media distraction.”
Maduro, 62, was declared the winner of last July’s presidential election, but the opposition and many countries, including the US, reject the results as fake and recognize now-exiled opposition candidate Edmundo González as the legitimate president-elect.
González fled Venezuela in September and has been living in Spain, but this month he toured America to rally international support.
Maduro’s government has issued a warrant for his arrest, offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Machado, who González replaced on the ballot after she was barred from running on her own, was also targeted. She went into hiding shortly after the disputed election and was last seen in public in August before Thursday’s rally.
Earlier in the day, the UN expressed concern after receiving reports of arbitrary detentions and intimidation in Venezuela ahead of opposition marches.
The arrest of Carlos Correa, head of an NGO that promotes press freedom, was highlighted earlier this week by unidentified hooded men.
Maduro’s government has deployed thousands of police in Caracas, where the National Assembly, a government ally, plans to swear Maduro in for a third term.
The opposition, for its part, called on its supporters to come out in droves in an effort to disrupt the ceremony.
In the city of Valencia, police fired tear gas at protesters, reports Reuters.
In western Caracas, 70-year-old Niegalos Payares told a news agency that “I’m not afraid, I lost my fear a long time ago.”
And in the city of Maracay, in central Venezuela, Roisa Gómez told a Reuters reporter that she was “fighting for my vote, which I gave to Edmundo González. They cannot steal the election.”
Maduro was declared the winner of the presidential election by the government-dominated National Electoral Council (CNE), but to date the CNE has not provided detailed voting data to confirm this claim.
Earlier this month in Washington, González met with US President Joe Biden, who said Venezuela deserves a “peaceful transfer of power”.
In Panama, González deposited thousands of votes that the opposition had collected in a bank there for safekeeping.
The results are key evidence offered by the opposition to show that González, not Maduro, won the election.
With the help of official election witnesses, they managed to collect 85% of the results and post them online.
Independent observers and media organizations that reviewed them say they show González convincingly defeated Maduro.
