Buenos Aires, Argentina — On Thursday, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado released video X claimed her campaign vehicle had been vandalized and its brakes cut. The video came a day after the government of current President Nicolas Maduro detained her security chief.
“Our car was vandalized and the brake hoses were cut,” Corina Machado wrote in the post. “Government agents followed us… and surrounded the building where we stayed overnight.”
At the end of June 2023, the Maduro government banned Machado from running for president for 15 years. She has since turned to support another opposition leader, Edmundo González Urrutia, for the July 28 presidential election and continues to support him in the campaign.
“I am warning the whole world,” Corina Machado said after her security chief, Mircíades Ávila, was detained on Wednesday. [Nicolás] Maduro has stepped up his crackdown on those who campaigned or helped us throughout the country.”
The Venezuelan government has not released any information or official statements regarding Avila’s detention.
Avila was arrested and charged with gender-based violence, according to the report. Machado said in a statement X Posts His arrest is related to an incident on Saturday, July 13, when some women tried to attack her and González Urrutia after a campaign event in La Encrucijada, Aragua.
“There are dozens of witnesses and videos that prove this act was a premeditated provocation aimed at leaving us without protection 11 days before July 28,” Machado said.
Retired diplomat González Urrutia also condemned the arrest of Avila and other attacks on the opposition as “intolerable acts of cowardice.”
“The authorities, the National Electoral Council and the international community (…) cannot stand idly by in the face of these events,” he said release On X.
Venezuelan electoral authorities convicted Corina Machado of fraud and conspiracy against late President Hugo Chavez in 2002, barring her from candidacy. Corina Machado has since chosen González Urrutia to succeed her. Corina Machado has denied all charges and continues to serve as the leader of the Venezuelan opposition movement, Vente.
Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal July 16 Reported A total of 114 people were arbitrarily arrested for political purposes, 102 of whom were linked to the teams of María Corina Machado and opposition presidential candidate González Urrutia.
The organization counts 301 political prisoners in Venezuela, of which 93 have not yet completed judicial proceedings and are undergoing preventive release measures.
Alfredo Romero, president of the Venezuelan Criminal Forum, said that of all those detained, 77 were detained after the presidential campaign officially began on July 4. “That is, they have not been convicted, but they have been imprisoned for more than three years, in violation of Article 230 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” Romero told Venezuelan media.
