By Mayela Armas, Vivian Sequera and Deisy Buitrago
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was released on Thursday after a brief detention, her Sell Venezuela movement announced on social media.
Machado was arrested after an anti-government march in Caracas, her first public appearance in months, amid gunfire, the movement said, adding that during her detention she was forced to film several videos.
Earlier, her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, demanded that she be released immediately while government officials, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, said her arrest was “a fabrication , a lie.”
Vente Venezuela had said that Machado had been “violently intercepted” in eastern Caracas and that the motorcycle caravan she was in had been targeted.
Opposition protests across the country in a last-minute effort to pressure President Nicolas Maduro ahead of his third inauguration Friday.
