Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has announced that she is in a “safe place” after being detained by the country’s authorities while participating in a demonstration in the capital, Caracas.
“I am now in a safe place and more determined than ever to continue with you until the end,” the former lawmaker wrote on the social network X on Thursday.
The campaign team of presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia began by denouncing an alleged kidnapping of Corina Machado – which was later described as a “detention” by the former lawmaker’s collaborators, who was participating in a protest in Caracas on the eve of Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration, scheduled for today.
Machado also wrote on X that, when the “repressive forces of the regime” detained her, a citizen was “shot and wounded”.
"My heart goes out to the Venezuelan who was shot and wounded when the regime's repressive forces detained me," he said, while promising to release more details about what happened.
"Thank you to all the citizens who took to the streets to demand our victory on July 28," he added, referring to the presidential elections, the result of which is contested by the opposition.
The announcement of the release was made after several European countries (Spain, Italy) and the region (Argentina, Panama, among others) had demanded Machado's release.
The Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, has since called the opposition's announcement "an invention, a lie."
Comando con Venezuela, a Venezuelan opposition organization, denounced Corina Machado's detention in a publication in X, in which it stated that the former deputy was detained after being "intercepted and knocked off the motorcycle she was riding."
"In the incident, firearms were fired. She was taken by force. During the period in which she was held hostage, she was forced to record several videos, and was later released," she added.
Corina Machado reappeared in Caracas on Thursday, after 133 days in hiding, to lead the opposition's mobilization in the Venezuelan capital in a demonstration in favor of Urrutia's victory in the presidential elections, on the eve of the Venezuelan President's inauguration.
The opposition leader also assured that the next few days will be "historic and decisive for the freedom" of the Caribbean country, as part of a citizens' movement that she described as impressive.
"From now on, we are in a new phase. We have been preparing for these days and these weeks," Machado told her supporters.
For the political leader, "the end of the Chavista regime" will depend on what Urrutia does today.
Urrutia, who went into exile in Spain in September after being subject to arrest warrants, announced that he will be in Caracas "very soon" and has reiterated his intention to assume the presidency of the country.
Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of the presidential elections on July 28, with 52% of the votes, by the National Electoral Council (CNE), considered to be under the control of the regime in power.
The CNE did not release the electoral records from the polling stations, claiming that it had been the victim of a cyber attack, an argument considered not very credible by many observers.
The opposition, which released electoral records provided by its observers, claims that Urrutia (successor to Machado, who was disqualified by the authorities) obtained more than 67% of the votes.
