SLP, Mexico.- Maria Corina Machado was arrested after participating in a popular mobilization in Caracas against the takeover of Nicolás Maduro, as confirmed by the account official of the National Campaign Command of the opposition leader.
Machado “was violently intercepted on her way out of the concentration in Chacao,” the note stated. He also added that “regime members shot at the motorcycles that were transporting her.”
Edmundo González, elected president of Venezuela, as confirmed by the scrutiny records collected by the opposition, demanded in networks the release of Machado, who came out of hiding to speak out against the Maduro regime this Thursday, the eve of the presidential inauguration.
“As president-elect, I demand the immediate release of María Corina Machado. To the security forces that kidnapped her I say: do not play with fire,” the opponent says on his X account, formerly Twitter.
As president-elect, I demand the immediate release of María Corina Machado.
To the security forces that kidnapped her I say: don’t play with fire.
— Edmundo González (@EdmundoGU) January 9, 2025
During the mobilization popular east of Caracas, María Corina Machado, standing on a truck and microphone in hand, stated that all Venezuelans were summoned by love: “What has united us is the love for our children, for our land Venezuela.”
“We broke down all the barriers that divided it, there is no other country on planet Earth united like Venezuela. That day changed history forever. The regime collapsed,” he shouted to the crowd that gathered around him.
Chavismo mobilized groups of motorized vehicles that took up positions in the areas where Edmundo González’s followers gathered this morning, following the call launched by Machado to demonstrate on the eve of the date on which Nicolas Maduro He is preparing to assume a new six-year term.
After learning of the opposition’s arrest, Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar sent a strong message to the Maduro regime and said: “If you attack MARía Corina, we, the US, are going to attack you.”
The ceremony in which Nicolás Maduro intends to put on the presidential sash for the third time is scheduled for this Friday, January 10. However, questions about his victory in the elections on July 28 continue to grow, both inside and outside Venezuela.
Maduro was declared the winner in July 2024 by the National Electoral Council (CNE), which is under the control of Chavismo and awarded him 52% of the votes, without publishing the results broken down by table.
The opposition and international electoral observers such as the Carter Center maintain that Edmundo González Urrutia, his main rival, obtained more than 67%. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) concluded in a recent report that “the circumstances surrounding the presidential election of July 28 constitute an alteration of the constitutional order.”
