Venezuelan goverment detains top opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in violent raid

Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald on Jan 9, 2025

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The Nicolas Maduro regime arrested Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday after opening fire against the driver of the motorcycle in which she was riding, people close to her team said.

The opposition leader, who had appeared in public for the first time on Thursday after having remained in hiding for four months, was forcefully picked up after she fell on the street. Opposition members said they did not know her physical condition.

Members of Machado’s team told the Miami Herald that regime security forces used drones to follow Machado after she left the demonstration and that they used the information to set up an ambush.

“Maria Corina was violently intercepted as she left the demonstration in Chacao,” a neighborhood sector of Caracas, her team said on its X account. “We hope to confirm her situation in minutes. Regime forces fired on the motorcycles that were transporting her.”

The news was received with alarm by U.S. authorities who regularly keep an eye on Venezuela.

“I hold the murderous Maduro regime and its executioners responsible for the physical integrity and safety of @MariaCorinaYa and warn that serious consequences will follow,” wrote Miami Republican Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart on his X account. “The days of impunity are coming to an end!”

In Washington, a National Security Council official also deplored the regime’s actions.

“We have and continue to condemn publicly Maduro and his representatives for attempting to intimidate Venezuela’s democratic opposition,” the official said. “Repression and intimidation cannot obscure the fact that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is the true winner of the July 28 elections. We call for the right of Maria Corina Machado to speak freely to be respected and for Maduro and his representatives to cease harassing the opposition.”