Caracas — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in power since 2013, was scheduled to be sworn in for a third term on Friday despite a global outcry that sparked thousands of protests ahead of the ceremony. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who came out of hiding to lead protests in Caracas on Thursday, was briefly detained after a rally against her team, sparking renewed international condemnation of Maduro’s alleged vote-rigging and intimidation of critics.

The government denied arresting Machado, but a vocal critic of Maduro did arrested by the security forces who intercepted her convoy after an anti-government rally in Caracas, her team said. Witnesses reported gunfire as her motorcycle veered off the road and she was forcibly taken away.

Trump, other world leaders react to Machado’s detention

In a social media post, President-elect Donald Trump branded Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – the man who took her place on the ballot and is widely believed to have defeated Maduro in the July 28 election – as “freedom fighters”.

They “should not be harmed, and MUST remain SAFE and ALIVE,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.

During his first term, Trump tightened punitive measures against Maduro’s government for anti-democratic actions. The sanctions were partially lifted and then reinstated by his successor, President Biden, and could be tightened during Trump’s next term, which begins in just 10 days.

Ecuador condemned what it called Maduro’s “dictatorship,” while Spain expressed its “total condemnation” of Machado’s detention, albeit brief.

Colombia, whose leftist president Gustavo Petro is historically an ally of Maduro, also condemned the “systematic mistreatment” of Machado, 57.

Italian right-wing Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni on Friday condemned “another unacceptable act of repression” in Venezuela, without specifically mentioning Machado.

“The news coming out of Venezuela represents another unacceptable act of repression by the Maduro regime, whose declared election victory we do not recognize,” Meloni said in a statement. “We intend to continue working on a democratic and peaceful transition. The legitimate aspirations for freedom and democracy of the Venezuelan people must finally be realized.”

Citing an “international conspiracy to disturb the peace of Venezuelans,” Freddy Bernal, the governor of the border state of Tachira, said the border with Colombia was closed on Friday and would reopen on Monday.

Defiant opposition leader Machado: “We are not afraid”

Machado earlier gave a defiant speech to thousands of supporters in central Caracas, sending a message to the government: “We are not afraid.”

A protest was also held in Paris, attended by Machado’s daughter Ana Corina Sosa and dozens of supporters.

Government opponents reported a new wave of repression ahead of Maduro’s swearing-in, including the arrest of another opposition presidential candidate, the head of a press freedom NGO and son-in-law Gonzalez Urrutia.

The United Nations this week expressed concern over reports of arbitrary detention and intimidation.

More than 2,400 people have been arrested, 28 killed and around 200 injured in protests that have met with Maduro’s claim to have won elections last year. Since then, he has maintained a fragile peace with the massive deployment of the army and police, and with the help of paramilitary “colectivos” — armed civilian volunteers charged with quelling protests with a reign of terror in the neighborhood.

Former diplomat Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, has expressed tentative plans to fly to Caracas this week to take power, but the plan is considered unlikely to go ahead.

“Wanted” posters offering a State award of $100,000 for his capture were plastered all over Caracas.

Gonzalez Urrutia has been on an international tour trying to pressure Maduro, 62, to relinquish power. It included a stop in Washington to meet Mr Biden, who called for a “peaceful return to democratic rule”.

Maduro has been in power since 2013, after the death of the leftist scoundrel Hugo Chavezhis political mentor. His re-election in 2018 was also widely dismissed as a sham, but he managed to hang on to power through a mix of populism and repression, even as the economy imploded.

Maduro enjoys the support of Russia and Cuba, as well as a loyal army, judges and state institutions in a system of well-established political patronage.

Thousands of ruling party loyalists staged rival protests in central Caracas on Thursday, vowing to thwart any attempt to thwart Maduro’s return to office.