Star Metro - Opponents decry Venezuela crackdown ahead of Maduro swearing-in

An opposition presidential rival and a press freedom activist were among the latest to be detained, their teams said, amid reports of critics being rounded up and spirited away by hooded men.

The Popular Democratic Front, a coalition of opposition parties, said Enrique Marquez, who had run against Maduro in last year's July 28 elections, was "arbitrarily detained" the previous day.

Marquez supported the victory claim of the main opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the United States, European Union and many of Venezuela's democratic neighbors recognize as the legitimate president-elect.

Marquez last September filed a petition asking Venezuela's Supreme Court to annul its validation of Maduro's reelection.

Just Tuesday, in a post on social media site X, he denounced "intimidation" of government opponents, insisting "peace cannot be imposed by force."

For its part, the Espacio Publico press freedom NGO said it lost contact with its director Carlos Correa on Tuesday afternoon, when witnesses reported he was "intercepted in the center of Caracas by hooded men presumed to be officials" of the regime.

Authorities have not confirmed either arrest.

Gonzalez Urrutia, currently in exile, reported on Tuesday that his son-in-law had been "kidnapped," also by hooded men dressed in black.

Opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado said her family, too, had been targeted, with agents surrounding her 84-year-old mother's house.

Masses of security forces have been deployed on the streets of Caracas, with Russian assault rifles handed out to pro-regime militia members parading at the presidential palace ahead of Maduro's investiture ceremony Friday.

The country is on tenterhooks, with the opposition calling for mass rallies Thursday. Machado has said she would come out of hiding to participate.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello warned prospective protesters, who he called "fascists" and "terrorists," that they would regret turning out "for the rest of your lives."

Rival pro-regime rallies are also planned for Thursday, five months after some 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and 200 injured in a crackdown on protests that broke out after Maduro claimed re-election to a third six-year term.

The opposition says its own tally of a majority of polling station results show Gonzalez Urrutia had won by a wide margin.

But the loyalist CNE electoral council announced victory for Maduro within hours of polls closing, without providing a vote breakdown.

- Return home? -

Gonzalez Urrutia was hosted Wednesday by President Jose Raul Mulino in Panama, where he would also hold talks with a group of former Latin American presidents and current foreign ministers before heading to the Dominican Republic.

He is on a tour to drum up pressure on Maduro to relinquish power, that had also taken him to Argentina, Uruguay and Washington, where he received strong support from President Joe Biden, much to Maduro's ire.

Gonzalez Urrutia, targeted by an arrest warrant in Venezuela, has vowed to return home to take power without detailing his plan.

A group of nine Latin American ex-presidents who support Gonzalez Urrutia had planned to accompany Gonzalez Urrutia to Venezuela at the end of his tour, but were declared persona non-grata Tuesday by the Venezuelan parliament.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, historically a leftist ally of Maduro, on Wednesday criticized the reported detentions of Marquez and Correa, saying: "These, and other events, prevent my personal attendance" of Friday's investiture ceremony.

He also called for "the freedom of all people detained for political reasons" in Venezuela.

On Tuesday, Maduro activated an "integral defense" plan for the deployment of police and soldiers countrywide, as he denounced a plot to prevent him taking the oath.

The strongman said authorities had arrested seven "mercenaries" with "terrorist" intentions.

The group of two Americans, two Colombians and three Ukrainians join another 125 "mercenaries" from 25 nationalities that Caracas says it has behind bars.

Maduro came to power in 2013 following the death of his political mentor Hugo Chavez, and his re-election in 2018 was also widely rejected by the international community as fraudulent.

S.Clark--SMC