Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrested, motorcycle convoy fired at by security after protest against Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela opposition leader 🍸Maria Corina Machado was arrested Thursday when her motorcycle convoy was fired upon by se💝curity forces as it departed an anti-government protest in Caracas, according to aides.

Machado emerged from months of hiding earlier Thursday to reappear in pu🐲blic as part of a last-ditch attempt to block President Nicolás Maduro f꧅rom clinging to power.

Machado’s press team said in a social media post that security forces “violently intercepted” the convoy as it was lꦛeaving eastern Caracas.

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“They wanted us to fight each other, but Venezuela is united, we are not afraid,” Machado shouted to 𓂃a few hundred protesters from atop a truck in the capital moments before her arrest.

There were no immediate details on her whereabouts and Maduro’s g𓃲overnment has yet to comment. But the shock arrest spurred calls for her immediate release from♌ across Latin America, including the President of Panama.

“Will the United Nations be capable enough to take action to rescue Maria Corina Machado?,” forꦆmer Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said on social media.

Machado, 57, is a hardliner for🐼mer lawmaker who stayed and fought against Maduro even after many of her allies in the opposition leadership fled, joining an exodus of some 7 million Venezuelans who’ve abandoned their homeland in rec♍ent years.

The protests called for by Machado took place a day before the ruling party-controlled National Assembly is scheduled to swear in Maduro to a third six-y𝔍ear term despite credible evidence that he lost the presidential election.

There was a relatively small turnout for Thursday’s protests as riot police were deployed in force. Venezuelans who’ve witnessed Maduro’s security forces rou⛦nd up scores of opponents and regular bystanders since the J﷽uly election were reluctant to mobilize in the same numbers as they have in the past.

“Of course, there’s fewer people,” said empanada vendor M🦩iguel Contrera as National Guard soldiers carrying riot shields buzzed by on motorcycles. “Th💛ere’s fear.”

Those demonstrators that did show up blocked a main avenue in one opposition stronghold. Ma🐻ny were senior citizens and dressed in red, yellow and blue, answering Machado’s call to wear the colors of 💫the Venezuelan flag. All repudiated Maduro and said they would recognize Edmundo González — Machado’s last minute stand-in on the ballot — as Venezuela’s legitimate president.

The deployment of security forces as🦄 well as pro-government armed groups known as “colectivos” to intimidate opponents betrays a deep insecurity on the part of Maduro, said Javier Corrales, a Latin America expert at Amherst Col🌃lege.

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Since the elections, the government has arrested more than 2,000 people — in🦂cluding as many as 10 Americans and other foreigners — who it claims have been plotting to oust Maduro and sow chaos in the oil rich South American nation. This week alone, masked gunmen arrested a former presidential candidate, a prominent free speech activist and even González’s son-in-law as he was taking his young children to school.

“It’s an im🐬pressive show of force but it’s also a sign of weakness,” said Corrales, who co-authored this month an article, “How M🐷aduro Stole Venezuela’s Vote,” in the Journal of Democracy.

“Maduro is safe in office,” said Corrales,♍ “but he and his allies recognize they are moving forward with a big lie and have no other way to justify what they🅺 are doing except by relying on the military.”

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González, who has been crisscrossing the Americas this week after fleeing to Sp𒀰ain in September, appeared to walk back a pledge to return to Venezuela to take office himself on ♈Jan. 10, saying instead he’d be back “very soon.”

“It’s evident that a regime like that represents a threat to the hemisphere,” he said while visiting the Dominican Republic, where he met with Preside🦩nt Luis Abinader and a delegation of former presidents from across Latin America. “That is why we Venezuelans are determined to persevere in this fight until the end,”

Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, also stacked with government lo🍷yalists, declared Maduro the winner of the election. But unlike in previous contests, authorities did not provide any access to v𓄧oting records or precinct-level results.

The opposition, however, collected tally sꦕheets from 85% of electronic vo💜ting machines and posted them online.

They showed that its candidate, Edmundo González, had thrashed Maduro by a more than 💟two-to-one margin.

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Experts from the United Nations and the Atlanta-based Carter Center, both invited by Maduro’s government to observe the election, have said the tally sheet🍰s published by the opposition are legitimate.

The U.S. and other governments have also recognized González as Venezuela’s president-elect. Even many of Maduro’s former leftist allies in Latin America plan to skip Friday’s sweari✃ng-in ceremony.

President Joe Biden, meeting González at 🍸the White House this week, praised the previously unknown retired diplomat for having “ins🐻pired millions.”

“The people of Venezuela deserve a peaceful transfer of power to the true winner of their presidenti♉al election,” Biden said following𒊎 the meeting.