Venezuela’s popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, was freed on Thursday afternoon after a brief detention by adversaries during an antigovernment protest in Caracas on Thursday, according to a statement on X by a political aide.
Ms. Machado was “violently intercepted as she left the gathering,” her party said on X. “Regime troops shot at the motorcycles that were transporting her.”
The country’s autocrat, Nicolás Maduro, is set to be sworn in for a third term as president on Friday.
Ms. Machado had been living in hiding in Venezuela amid threats of arrest from government officials, and this was her first public appearance since August. She had called for gatherings around the country, and in cities around the world, to protest Mr. Maduro’s inauguration.
Thousands turned out to support Ms. Machado at an event in Caracas on Thursday, all risking government detention. There, the opposition leader stood atop a truck while supporters shouted, “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”
On X, the political aide, Magalli Meda, said that as Ms. Machado was leaving the gathering, she was knocked off her motorbike.
“Firearms went off at the event,” Ms. Meda said. “They took her away by force.”
During her brief detention, “she was forced to record several videos and was later released,” she added. “In the next few hours she herself will be the one to address the country to explain what happened.”
Representatives for Ms. Machado declined to say who detained her. The event was full of government security forces, who are often backed by members of armed gangs know as colectivos.
Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, speaking in a television interview, called the capture “a lie” and accused the opposition of inventing it to attract attention.
The country’s opposition, as well as the United States and other countries, say that Mr. Maduro had stolen a recent election and that the real winner was Edmundo González, a former diplomat who has Ms. Machado’s backing.
Mr. González has been living in exile since September.
Before her detention, Ms. Machado told her followers, “This force that we have built and that grows every day has prepared us for this final phase.”
“Whatever they do tomorrow,” she said of the Maduro inauguration, “they’ve just buried themselves!”
About 2,000 people have been detained in Venezuela since the July 28 election, including, in recent days, Mr. González’s son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, as well as Carlos Correa, the director of a high-profile nonprofit organization, Espacio Público.
