Thursday saw mass rallies and the kidnapping of prominent figures in Venezuela, the same day Canada recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the country’s legitimate president.
Gonzalez lives in exile in Spain, while Venezuela’s de facto ruler, Nicolas Maduro, continues to occupy the Miraflores presidential palace, claiming that his party won the elections held on July 28 last year.
On Monday, Gonzalez met with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. After that meeting, Biden posted on social media that Gonzalez was the “real winner” of last year’s election and that the country deserved a peaceful transition of power.
The next day, Gonzalez announced that his brother-in-law, Rafael Todares, had been kidnapped by masked men while taking his two young children to school.
It was one of what appeared to be a new wave of arrests, as the Venezuelan opposition once again intensified its campaign to remove Maduro’s authoritarian socialist government from power.
A leader comes out of hiding
Presidential candidate Gonzalez, who traveled to the Dominican Republic today to seek more international support, is not the leader of the Venezuelan opposition. He is rather an alternative candidate to the real leader María Corina Machado, who has been barred by the Maduro government’s courts from running for the presidency.
On Wednesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie spoke with Machado by phone. Shortly afterwards she tweeted a statement Who officially recognized Gonzalez as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Canada had previously expressed its disbelief in the official results of last summer’s elections announced by the Maduro government, but it has not yet taken the step of recognizing Maduro’s winning competitor.
Gonzalez went into exile shortly after the Maduro regime responded to the election with a wave of arrests and repression, but Machado remained in the country, spending much of the past six months in hiding.
A deranged kidnapping in broad daylight
On Wednesday, Machado hinted that she would return to public appearances, while the opposition prepared a new campaign of street protests to demand respect for the election results. The opposition intends to protest Maduro’s swearing-in for a third six-year term as president, scheduled for Friday in the National Assembly in Caracas.
In recent days, Maduro has engaged in Power shows It appears to be intended to discourage opposition protests.
Today, Machado came out of hiding Great march title In the Chacao neighborhood of Caracas, but it appears that men on motorcycles arrested her as she was leaving the place.
Machado is often surrounded by dozens or even hundreds of supporters on motorcycles to protect her from government kidnap squads, but on this occasion the opposition said they were unable to protect her and one of her motorcycle companions was injured by gunfire.
The arrest sparked anger from the Venezuelan opposition, and its supporters around the world, including… Poilievre callsWife of Canada’s official opposition leader.
He was released from custody
Within two hours of her arrest, A Video on social media It appeared to show Machado saying that she had been released and was safe.
But the video was not published on Machado’s private account, or on other opposition channels, and some expressed doubts about its authenticity.
By late afternoon, Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, issued a statement Confirm her release.
“They took her by force,” the statement said. He added: “During her kidnapping, she was forced to record several video clips, then she was released, and in the coming hours she will go to the country and explain the situation.”
There was some speculation in opposition circles that the kidnapping and quick release may reflect divisions between hardliners and moderates within the Chavista government over how to handle Machado and the protests.
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