Venezuela Opposition Leader Detained, Then Released
Venezuela Opposition Leader Detained, Then Released
CARABALLEDA, Venezuela—The head of Venezuela’s legislature was briefly detained Sunday by the country’s secret police, as international pressure mounts on authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.
The detention came days after Juan Guaidó, the 35-year-old lawmaker who chairs Venezuela’s National Assembly, said he was willing to assume the presidency.
The U.S., the European Union and a host of countries across the Americas have refused to recognize Mr. Maduro’s leadership after calling his May reelection a fraud and deeming the National Assembly the nation’s only legitimate authority.
In a cellphone video that was posted on
Twitter
by his political party, Popular Will, Mr. Guaidó was seen being pulled from his vehicle in the middle of a two-lane road as he was traveling to a rally and forced into another truck by several officers of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service, or Sebin, before they sped away. The video was recorded by a motorist stuck in a traffic jam behind Mr. Guaidó’s car as the encounter was unfolding.
Mr. Guaidó’s wife, Fabiana Rosales, confirmed an hour later that he had been freed. The Sebin officers acted unilaterally, Venezuela’s Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said, calling their actions irregular and promising to take disciplinary measures against them.
“The dictatorship tried to kidnap our only legitimate president and they couldn’t keep him prisoner,” Popular Will said in a statement. “The dictatorship is weak, it’s divided.”
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton condemned Mr. Guaidó’s detention, calling it “a grave assault on the rule of law in Venezuela.”
Mr. Maduro was sworn in by political allies to a second, six-year presidential term on Thursday, in defiance of calls by foreign nations and his domestic political rivals to resign. During his time in office, he has overseen galloping hyperinflation, spreading hunger and a mass exodus of migrants.
In the absence of a president, Venezuela’s constitution calls for the National Assembly chief to assume powers until fresh elections are organized. Mr. Guaidó, a former student activist who rose to prominence leading protests against Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, the late leftist President Hugo Chávez, said on Friday that he was willing to start that process but stopped short of announcing concrete steps on how to do so.
In recent days, Mr. Guaidó and other opposition leaders have tried holding small rallies to rekindle anti-Maduro street demonstrations that had periodically shaken Venezuela since 2014 but which have largely tapered off amid the country’s intensifying economic meltdown and deadly crackdowns by state security forces.
On Sunday, a few hundred of Mr. Guaidó’s supporters were waiting for him under scorching heat in front of a school here in this coastal town facing the Caribbean Sea, about an hour’s drive from the capital, Caracas. They chanted “to the streets” after word spread of the lawmaker’s detention.
“This is an insult to democracy,” said university student Carlos Galarraga. “I consider him my president. There’s no rule of law in Venezuela. We need the help of the international community.”
Some 60 countries refused to recognize Mr. Maduro’s reelection in May, calling it a sham. But Mr. Maduro enjoys the support of the armed forces, the courts and a parallel legislature he created to usurp powers from the National Assembly.
While Mr. Guaidó has received the backing of foreign leaders, he has also faced public threats by Mr. Maduro’s allies like Prisons Minister Iris Varela. “Guaidó, I have your cell ready with your respective uniform,” read a post on her official Twitter account on Friday.
“I hope you quickly name your cabinet to know who else is going to accompany you,” she added before calling him an “idiotic kid.”
Write to Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com
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