Venezuela’s popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, was detained during an anti-government protest in Caracas on Thursday, according to a statement on X by her party, Vente Venezuela.
Ms. Machado had been living in hiding amid threats of arrest from government officials, and this was her first public appearance since August.
It was initially unclear who detained her, though the event was full of government security forces. She was “violently intercepted as she left the gathering in Chacao,” a part of Caracas, said the statement. “Regime troops shot at the motorcycles that were transporting her.”
The country’s autocrat, President Nicolás Maduro, is set to be sworn in for a third term tomorrow.
