Venezuela opposition leader Machado arrested, local media says, citing opposition staffer By Reuters

By Vivian Sequera and Myrceli Guanipa

CARACAS/MARACAY (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been arrested, VPI television reported on Thursday, citing opposition official Magali Meda.

Machado was “violently intercepted” leaving the march, his first public appearance in months, the opposition said on social media on Thursday.

The opposition has been holding protests across the country in an eleventh-hour bid to pressure President Nicolas Maduro, a day before he is inaugurated for his third six-year term.

Machado was “violently seized while leaving Chacao’s march. We expect his condition to be confirmed minutes later. Regime agents shot at the motorcycles on which he was transported,” the opposition said in X.

The opposition and the ruling party are in an ongoing dispute over last year’s presidential election, which both claim to have won.

The country’s electoral authority and top court said Maduro, whose tenure has been marked by a deep economic and social crisis, won the July election, though they have never released detailed reports.

The government, which has accused the opposition of fomenting fascist plots against it, said it would arrest opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez if he returned to the country and detained prominent opposition members and activists ahead of the inauguration.