By Mayela Armas, Vivian Sequera and Deisy Buitrago
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was freed on Thursday after a brief detention, her Vente Venezuela movement said on social media.
Machado was detained after an anti-government march in Caracas, her first public appearance in months, amid gunshots, the movement said, adding that during her detention she was forced to film several videos.
Earlier, her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, demanded she be freed immediately as government officials including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said her arrest was “an invention, a lie.”
Vente Venezuela had said Machado was “violently intercepted” in eastern Caracas, and that the motorcycle caravan in which she was riding had been shot at.
The opposition are protesting around the country in an eleventh-hour effort to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro ahead of his third inauguration on Friday.
(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)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.