Protests in Venezuela
Maduro apparently has opposition leader kidnapped
January 9, 2025 – 10:03 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Venezuela’s ruler Maduro is to be sworn in again on Friday. The opposition leader protested against this – and was then apparently kidnapped.
After her first public appearance in months, Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado was kidnapped following a protest rally, according to opposition candidate Edmundo González. “To the security forces who kidnapped her, I say: Don’t play with fire,” González wrote on X, calling for her immediate release.
The opposition’s campaign platform had previously announced that Machado had been intercepted by force. Government members shot at the motorcycles on which she was being transported. The opposition leader had just left a rally.
Machado left her hiding place for the first time in months and joined the protests she had called by thousands of people against the planned swearing in of authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro. “I am here, with you, and until the end,” she wrote on X. The 57-year-old did not appear in public after the election for security reasons. People across the country took to the streets with slogans such as “Glory to the brave people,” as can be seen in pictures on online networks.
After the presidential election in Venezuela in July, opposition candidate Edmundo González claimed victory. The USA and several Latin American countries recognize him as the winner of the election. However, the loyal electoral authority declared the head of state Maduro, who has been in power for almost twelve years, as the election winner. He is scheduled to be sworn into office on Friday.
González left for Spain at the beginning of September and applied for political asylum there. He recently announced that he would return to his homeland and be sworn in as president of the South American country on Friday. However, there is an arrest warrant for him in Venezuela.
