SLP, Mexico.- The Ministry of the Interior of Venezuela confirmed this Monday that it arrested Roalmi Alberto Cabeza, a law student at the Central University of Venezuela and a motorist who took to the opposition leader María Corina Machado after the demonstration last Thursday, January 9 in Caracas.
According to the official statement from the Maduro regime, disseminated on social networks, Cabeza will be accused of the alleged crimes of “association to commit a crime” and “simulation of a punishable act with the aim of generating anxiety in the country.”
The official version argues that the young man “has been detained in a well-known hotel in Greater Caracas, Venezuela; who states that he was in ‘protection’ by order of the citizen Maria Corina Machado” and adds that he is in “excellent physical and health condition,” “with no injuries anywhere on his body.”
Roalmi Cabeza Cedeño, without committing any crime, wounded by a gunshot and kidnapped, I say kidnapped because those accused according to international treaties, the Constitution and the law have rights, he needs medical attention and they do not want to provide it. @KarimKhanQC pic.twitter.com/GYK5gPFakR
— Joel García (@joelgarcia69) January 11, 2025
This Friday, María Corina Machado alluded to the arrest she suffered on thursday when leaving the Chacao opposition demonstration, in Caracas.
The opposition leader stated that, when she was leaving the protest site on a motorcycle, she was intercepted by “armed members of the Bolivarian National Police” who were carrying “long weapons.”
“I was abruptly pulled off the motorcycle and [los efectivos de la Policía] They put me on another, in the middle of two men. “That’s how they are: they attack a woman from behind,” said the opponent. “Suddenly they stopped and told me that they had orders for me to leave,” he added.
According to Machado, in that event the driver of the motorcycle on which he was traveling suffered injuries and on the journey, aboard that vehicle, he heard “that they were heading to Boleita.” Since then, Cabeza’s family and Machado’s followers they denounced that the young man’s whereabouts were unknown.
In a message addressed to his followers and the international community, Macharo denounced the increase in security operations and denounced arbitrary arrests after the protests.
The day before, when leaving the popular rally, she was allegedly intercepted and knocked off the motorcycle she was riding on, according to her work team.
“Firearms detonated in the event. They took her away by force. During the period of her kidnapping, she was forced to record several videos and then she was released,” reported the National Campaign Command “With Venezuela.”
During the mobilization popular on January 9, 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.”
Chavismo mobilized groups of motorized vehicles that were stationed in the areas where the followers of Edmundo González gathered this morning, after the call launched by Machado to demonstrate on the eve of the date on which Nicolas Maduro assume a new six-year term.
