Venezuelan opposition leader arrested after protest ahead of Maduro inauguration

VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER Maria Corina Machado has been arrested after her convoy was intercepted by security forces as it departed an anti-government protest in Caracas, according to aides.

Machado emerged from months of hiding earlier today and reappeared in public as part of a last-ditch attempt to block President Nicolas Maduro from clinging to power.

Machado’s press team said in a social media post that security forces fired on the motorcycle convoy as it was leaving eastern Caracas where Machado moments earlier had spoken to a crowd of supporters.

There were no immediate details on her whereabouts and Maduro’s government has yet to comment.

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The protests were taking place a day before the ruling party-controlled National Assembly is scheduled to swear in Maduro to a third six-year term, despite credible evidence that he lost the presidential election.

Maduro was declared the victor of the election on 28 July last year with 52% of the vote. However, the National Electoral Council (CNE) has not provided a breakdown of the results.

Opposition figures say that their candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won with two-thirds of the vote.

Protests after Maduro’s alleged victory was announced left 25 civilians and two soldiers dead, nearly 200 people and more than 2,400 jailed.

Maduro has previously called for both Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia to be arrested, accusing them of fomenting a coup d’etat.