Thursday was marked by massive marches and mass hostage-taking in Venezuela, the same day Canada recognized opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the country’s official president.
Gonzalez is in exile in Spain, while Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, continues to live in the Miraflores presidential palace, claiming his party won last year’s July 28 election.
On Monday, Gonzalez met with United States 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 her son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, had been kidnapped by masked men while he was taking his two children to school.
That was one of what appeared to be a new wave of arrests as Venezuela’s opposition intensified its campaign to oust Maduro’s authoritarian government.
A hidden leader appeared
President Gonzalez, who left today for the Dominican Republic to seek international support, is not the leader of the Venezuelan opposition. Instead, he ran for the real leader, Maria Corina Machado, who has been barred by the courts from the Maduro government from running.
On Wednesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly spoke with Machado by phone. Soon after he sent a statement on Twitter officially accepting Gonzalez as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Canada has expressed disbelief at the official results of last year’s election announced by the Maduro government, but has yet to take steps to recognize Maduro’s rival as the winner.
Gonzalez went into exile shortly after Maduro’s regime responded to the election with a wave of arrests and repression, but Machado remained in the country, and has spent much of the past six months in hiding.
Confused daytime abduction
On Wednesday, Machado announced that he will return to the public, as opposition groups prepare for a new campaign of street protests demanding that the election results be respected. Opposition groups intend to oppose the swearing-in of Maduro for a third six-year term as president, which is scheduled to take place on Friday at the National Assembly in Caracas.
In recent days, Maduro has engaged in demonstrations of force apparently aimed at quashing opposition protests.
Today, Machado emerged from hiding and made headlines at a large gathering in Chacao, Caracas, but he was seen being arrested by men on motorcycles as he left the scene.
Machado is often surrounded by dozens or hundreds of motorcycle supporters to protect him from government gangs, but in this incident the opposition said they failed to protect him and one of his motorcycle escorts was injured during the shooting.
The arrest sparked outrage from Venezuela’s opposition, and its supporters around the world, including Anaida Poilievre, the wife of the Canadian opposition leader.
He was released from custody
Two hours after being detained, a video appeared on social media showing Machado saying that he had been released and was safe.
But the video was not posted by Machado’s account, or other dissident channels, and some have expressed doubts about its authenticity.
In the afternoon, Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, issued a statement confirming his release.
“They took him by force,” said the statement. “When he was kidnapped, he was forced to record many videos, and then he was released. In the coming hours, he will speak to the world and explain the situation.”
There has been speculation in opposition circles that the arrest and quick release may reflect a split between hardliners and trustees in the Chavista government over how to deal with Machado and the protests.