Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was detained amid anti-government protests in Caracas on Thursday, a day before President Nicolás Maduro is expected to be sworn in to a third full term in office.
Machado, who was prevented from running for president by Maduro’s government, is a key figure behind Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate whom President Biden on Monday recognized as the true winner of the July election.
According to multiple reports and social media posts by the Venezuelan opposition, Machado’s motorcade was fired upon by gunmen riding motorcycles and jeeps and supported by drones.
The armed group then took Machado into custody in what some local media and opposition leaders are calling a kidnapping.
Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) posted a warning to Maduro on X, saying, “if you attack [Machado], we the United States will attack you.”
Machado’s detention comes only days after González Urrutia sat with Biden in the Oval Office and received international support at the Organization of American States headquarters in Washington.
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