Venezuelan opposition leader detained ahead of Maduro’s inauguration
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was detained and later released amid antigovernment 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.
“As president elect, I demand the immediate liberation of María Corina Machado,” González Urrutia posted Thursday on the social platform X. “To the security forces who kidnapped her I say: Don’t play with fire.”
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.
Machado was pulled from a motorcycle in the attack and taken into custody, where she was forced to record videos and later released, according to Venezuelan opposition social media posts.
“I am now in a safe place and more determined than ever before to continue with you UNTIL THE END!” she wrote on X. “Tomorrow I will tell you what happened today and what is coming.”
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.”
Earlier Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch (R-Idaho) introduced the VALOR Act, a sanctions package tied to antidemocratic actions by the Maduro regime.
“The Maduro regime poses a serious threat to U.S. national security and international stability by causing chaos in our hemisphere,” said Risch in a statement. “Sanctions imposed under The VALOR Act will reduce the resources the regime has at its disposal to harm Americans and American interests. I’m grateful to my colleagues for supporting this critical national security legislation.”
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 (OAS) headquarters in Washington.
González Urrutia, who fled to Spain shortly after the election, vowed from Washington to take power on Friday, Venezuela’s official inauguration day.
The Venezuelan opposition claimed victory in the July election, despite the government shutting down the official count and later announcing figures that showed Maduro as the winner.
According to those official figures, Maduro won nearly 52 percent of the vote to González Urrutia’s 43 percent.
But Maduro’s numbers have been widely discredited by both domestic and international observers, based on both polling prior to the election and tally sheets the opposition was able to recover from voting machines before Maduro’s forces shut down the count.
According to the opposition, González Urrutia won 67 percent of the vote to Maduro’s 30 percent.
Because the government shut down the election, independent observers could not fully verify the opposition’s claims.
But multiple organizations panned the government’s handling of the election, fully discrediting Maduro’s numbers to the point of finding glaring mathematical inconsistencies in the official results.
Though countries like the United States have recognized González Urrutia as the winner of the election, most have stopped short of declaring him president-elect.
Maduro is likely to go ahead with his swearing-in ceremony on Friday, maintaining his grip on power in Venezuela and the country’s security forces.
From 2019 to 2023, Maduro lost international recognition after a number of foreign governments deemed his 2018 election fraudulent and then-National Assembly President Juan Guaidó was named acting president by the legislative body.
Though Guaidó received support in the United States, Latin America and Europe, he was never able to take control of Venezuela, and Maduro tightened his grip on power, ending the opposition’s nominal control of the National Assembly.
But if the 2018 elections were seen as likely fraudulent, the 2024 elections were internationally condemned as a blatant power grab by Maduro.
Speaking to the Venezuelan diaspora outside OAS headquarters on Monday, González Urrutia vowed to take office on Friday, despite Maduro’s grip on power.
Updated Jan. 10 at 9:32 a.m.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
