Venezuela Opposition Says Leader Machado Free After Arrest
(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado was freed after a brief detention in which she was forced to record videos, her party’s office said, concluding a harrowing two-hour stretch after she risked her safety to make her first public appearance in months.
Most Read from Bloomberg
NYC Condo Owners May Bear Costs of Landmark Green Building Law
Ambitious High-Speed Rail Plans Advance in the Baltic Region
NYC’s Subway Violence Deters Drive to Bring Workers Back to Office
Machado will address the situation in the next few hours, the office said. Opposition representatives said she had been detained by security forces after leaving a protest against President Nicolás Maduro, who plans to be sworn in for a third term on Friday despite evidence that he stole last year’s election.
Maduro’s regime has already drawn international condemnation for its self-declared election victory in July and subsequent repression of its critics. Around two dozen people have been detained since the start of the year, including a relative of opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González and Enrique Márquez, a harsh critic of Maduro’s policies and former vice president of the opposition-led National Assembly.
Before showing up at the rally Thursday in Caracas, Machado had last appeared in public on Aug. 28, a month after the election the US, the European Union and other nations say was rightfully won by González.
“Everything we’ve built has prepared us for this final stage,” Machado, 57, told the crowd Thursday. “Have no doubt that tomorrow, whatever they do, marks the start of the end for the regime.”
(Updates with background beginning in third paragraph)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
The US Government Is Sitting on a Possible Solution to the Housing Crisis
He Built Russia’s Biggest Tech Company. Now He’s Starting Over—Without Putin
Israel’s Wartime Farmers Are Relearning How to Plow Without GPS
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
