Leader reportedly freed after being ‘violently intercepted’ having left hideout to lead protest against Nicolás Maduro

Allies of Venezuela’s most influential opposition leader, María Corina Machado, said she had been “kidnapped” from the streets of Caracas by regime officials after sneaking out of her hideout to lead a major protest against the authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.

About three hours after the announcement, Machado supporters said she had been released having been knocked off a motorbike and “taken away by force” while leaving the rally and had been compelled to record a number of videos.

Global democratic leaders pledge a boycott as exiled opposition leader vows to return to challenge ceremony

Venezuela’s tumble into authoritarianism is poised to enter an even harsher new phase this week with Nicolás Maduro set to extend his 12-year rule despite widespread suspicions that he stole last year’s presidential election.

The man widely believed to have won that vote – retired diplomat Edmundo González – fled abroad to escape a draconian post-election crackdown but has vowed to return home to challenge Maduro’s planned inauguration on Friday.

VP party holds Maduro regime responsible for death of Edwin Santos who had been picked up by security officials

A major Venezuelan opposition party has said that one of its activists was murdered this week after being detained by security officials in the western state of Apure.

Edwin Santos “was murdered after being abducted by members of the state security forces” on Wednesday, Voluntad Popular (VP) party said, blaming the iron-fisted regime of the leftwing president, Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela’s president attempts to move on from bitterly disputed election result by declaring Christmas in October

’Twas 85 nights before Christmas when the decorations went up – at least in Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro has decided festivities should start early in an apparent attempt to lift spirits and distract minds after the recent election scandal.

A month after Maduro announced that Christmas 2024 would begin in October, residents of Caracas left home on Tuesday to find the capital’s boulevards and plazas decked with LED light strings and sculptures declaring: “Feliz Navidad.”

Edmundo González says he signed election letter under duress as condition for allowing him to flee to Spain

• Is it game over for Venezuela’s opposition as Maduro clings on?

Venezuela’s opposition candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, has said he was coerced into signing a letter recognizing Nicolás Maduro as the winner of the country’s disputed election as a condition for letting him flee to Spain.

The revelation of the letter is the latest strain to the country’s political crisis, which was exacerbated by the disputed election results and González’s recent departure for exile in Spain.

Opposition leaders are adamant their campaign to remove Maduro is very much alive – even as their candidate widely believed to have won the vote has gone into exile in Spain

Against all the odds, they pulled off a once-inconceivable democratic victory against one of the world’s most unyielding authoritarian regimes. Even more astonishingly, Venezuela’s opposition activists managed to prove it, gathering a vast cache of voting data that offered concrete proof of their success.

Yet six weeks after Venezuela’s presidential election, it was the candidate widely believed to have won the vote, Edmundo González, who has flown into exile in Spain, while the apparent loser, Nicolás Maduro, looks set to keep power.

María Corina Machado wants struggle against Maduro’s ‘criminal tyranny’ to mirror anti-apartheid movement

The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, has called for a global movement, similar to the international campaign against apartheid in South Africa, to help rescue her country from Nicolás Maduro’s “criminal tyranny”.

Speaking to foreign journalists as Maduro stepped up his post-election crackdown, Machado said she hoped Venezuela’s struggle for democracy would become “a world cause” just as South Africa’s did in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Edmundo González, widely believed to have beaten President Nicolás Maduro in the election, faces arrest for alleged crimes carrying long sentences if convicted

A Venezuelan judge on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Edmundo González, the opposition politician widely believed to have beaten President Nicolás Maduro in the recent election, for alleged crimes that could see him spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted.

González, a 75-year-old retired diplomat, was catapulted into the eye of Venezuela’s political storm earlier this year when he agreed to challenge Maduro in the 28 July presidential election in the place of the banned opposition leader María Corina Machado.