By Vivian Sequera and Mircely Guanipa
CARACAS/MARACAY (Reuters) – Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been arrested, internet broadcaster VPI TV said on Thursday, citing opposition staffer Magalli Meda.
Machado was “violently intercepted” leaving a march, her first public appearance in months, the opposition said on social media on Thursday.
The opposition are protesting around the country in an eleventh-hour effort to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro, one day before he is due to be sworn in for his third six-year term.
Machado “was violently intercepted during her exit from the march in Chacao. In minutes we expect to confirm her situation. Agents of the regime shot at the motorcycles on which she was transported,” the opposition said on X.
The opposition and the ruling party are locked in an ongoing dispute over last year’s presidential election, which they both claim to have won.
The country’s electoral authority and top court say Maduro, whose time in office has been marked by a deep economic and social crisis, won the July vote, though they have never published detailed tallies.
The government, who has accused the opposition of fomenting fascist plots against it, said it will arrest opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez should he return to the country and has detained prominent opposition members and activists in the lead-up to the inauguration.
(Reporting by Vivian Sequera, Mayela Armas and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas and Mircely Guanipa in Maracay; Additional reporting by Mariela Nava in Maracaibo, Tathiana Oriz in San Cristobal, Kerne Torres in Barquisimeto, Maria Ramirez in Puerto Ordaz, Tibisay Romero in Valencia, Leonardo Fernandez Viloria in Caracas and Corina Pons in Madrid; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Oliver Griffin; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Daniel Wallis)
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