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Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado was reportedly briefly detained Thursday, both international and local media reported, citing members of her team.
In what was her first public appearance in months, Machado was apparently “violently intercepted” after a rally to protest against President Nicolás Maduro, who is set to be sworn in for a third term Friday, the opposition said. She was later released, according to her team.
The US and other countries contend that the opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, was the real winner of the election, and Urrutia has said he plans to return to Caracas to be sworn in after initially fleeing the country to Spain.
Prior to Machado’s reported arrest, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans said that “America stands with Maria Corina Machado.”
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In his first term, the president-elect deployed a strategy of “maximum pressure” on Maduro’s Caracas, sanctioning its oil industry and recognizing an opposition leader as the rightful president — a stance many analysts expect Trump to take back up after he is inaugurated later this month.