Caracas — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, in power since 2013, was to take the oath of office for a third term Friday despite a global outcry that brought thousands out in protest on the ceremony’s eve. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who came out of hiding to lead a demonstration in Caracas on Thursday, was briefly detained after the rally according to her team, reigniting international condemnation of Maduro’s alleged vote steal and cowing of critics.
The government denied arresting Machado, but the vocal critic of Maduro was detained by security forces who intercepted her convoy following an anti-government rally in Caracas, her team said. Witnesses reported gunfire as her motorcycle was forced off the road and she was forcibly taken away.
Trump, other world leaders react to Machado’s detention
In a social media post, President-elect Donald Trump branded Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia — the man who took her place on the ballot and is widely accepted to have beaten Maduro in elections on July 28 — as “freedom fighters.”
They “should not be harmed, and MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.
During his first term in office, Trump tightened punitive measures against the Maduro government for anti-democratic actions. The sanctions were partly lifted, then reimposed, by his successor President Biden, and may well be hardened during Trump’s next term, which begins in just 10 days.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a swearing-in march for combatant forces in Caracas, Jan. 7, 2025. / Credit: PEDRO MATTEY/AFP/Getty
Ecuador denounced what it called the Maduro “dictatorship,” while Spain expressed “total condemnation” of Machado’s detention, albeit brief.
Colombia, whose leftist President Gustavo Petro is historically an ally of Maduro, also condemned the “systematic harassment” of Machado, 57.
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday denounced “another unacceptable act of repression” in Venezuela, without mentioning Machado specifically.
“The news coming from Venezuela represents another unacceptable act of repression by the Maduro regime, whose proclaimed electoral victory we do not recognize,” Meloni said in a statement. “We intend to continue working for a democratic and peaceful transition. The legitimate aspirations of freedom and democracy of the Venezuelan people must finally be realized.”
Citing “an international conspiracy to disturb Venezuelans’ peace,” Freddy Bernal, governor of the frontier state of Tachira, said the border with Colombia was closed on Friday and will reopen Monday.
Defiant opposition leader Machado: “We are not afraid”
Machado earlier made a defiant speech to thousands of supporters in central Caracas, sending a message to the government that: “We are not afraid.”
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest ahead of the inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2025. / Credit: Gaby Oraa/REUTERS
There was also a protest in Paris attended by Machado’s daughter Ana Corina Sosa and dozens of supporters.
Government opponents reported a new wave of repression ahead of Maduro’s swearing-in, including the arrest of another opposition presidential candidate, the head of a press freedom NGO, and Gonzalez Urrutia’s son-in-law.
The United Nations voiced alarm this week at reports of arbitrary detention and intimidation.
More than 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and about 200 injured in protests that met Maduro’s claim of election victory last year. He has since maintained a fragile peace through massive military and police deployments and with the help of paramilitary “colectivos” — armed civilian volunteers accused of quelling protests through a reign of neighborhood terror.
Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia speaks during a press conference in Caracas, July 25, 2024, ahead of the presidential election. / Credit: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty
Former diplomat Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, had voiced tentative plans to fly to Caracas this week to take power, but the plan is deemed unlikely to go ahead.
“Wanted” posters offering a $100,000 government reward for his capture have been plastered all over Caracas.
Gonzalez Urrutia has been on an international tour seeking to pile pressure on Maduro, 62, to relinquish power. It has included a stop in Washington to meet Mr. Biden, who called for a “peaceful transfer back to democratic rule.”
Maduro has been in power since 2013, following the death of left-wing firebrand Hugo Chavez, his political mentor. His re-election in 2018 was also widely rejected as fraudulent but he managed to cling to power through a mix of populism and repression, even as the economy imploded.
Maduro enjoys support from Russia and Cuba, as well as a loyal military, judges and state institutions in a system of well-established political patronage.
Thousands of ruling party loyalists held a rival demonstration in central Caracas on Thursday, vowing to prevent any attempt to thwart Maduro’s return to office.
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