(9 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++UPDATES STORYLINE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Caracas, Venezuela – 9 January 2025
1. Various of Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan Opposition Leader, standing atop car and waving Venezuelan flag, people rallying around her
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Maria Corina Machado, Venezuelan Opposition Leader:
"Whatever they do tomorrow, it will seal the fate of the regime."
3. Protesters chanting
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Yasmir Milano, supporter of Venezuelan opposition:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
"First of all, I’m attending the call from our leader, María Corina Machado, secondly because I want to defend the vote of all Venezuelans. More than 7 million Venezuelans voted for a change, and we want that to be a reality. Third, we have to do everything we can for our leader our president Edmundo González to return to the country and take office."
5. Machado at protest
6. Various of protesters
7. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) María Méndez, supporter of Venezuelan opposition:
"I never lose hope. It’s just that I don’t have fixed goals for today or tomorrow. This will happen when it has to happen. Because if you have those goals so fixed, all you get is frustration. So many things have happened in Venezuela, and many conditions are given for the change to happen, a historical cycle shift."
8. Machado holding banner
STORYLINE:
Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado emerged from months of hiding earlier Thursday to reappear in public as part of a last-ditch attempt to block President Nicolás Maduro from clinging to power.
Machado’s aides said she was detained Thursday, followed moments later by official denials of her arrest, in a confusing episode that capped a day of protests.
It remained unclear what exactly happened after Machado bid farewell to hundreds of supporters, hopped on a motorcycle and raced with her security convoy down a main Caracas avenue.
At 3:21 p.m. local time, Machado’s press team said in a social media post that security forces “violently intercepted” her convoy.
Her aides later told The Associated Press that she had been detained, and international condemnation poured in from leaders in Latin America and beyond, demanding her release.
But about an hour later, a proof-of-life, 20-second video of Machado emerged online in which she says she was followed after leaving the “wonderful” rally and had dropped her purse.
Her aides later claimed in a social media post that the video message had been coerced, and that after recording it, she was freed. They said she would provide details of her “kidnapping” later.
In recent years, the word kidnapping has been associated with the government practice of detaining real or perceived opponents without following the law. It’s seen as part of a campaign to repress anti-government protests that broke out after the election results were announced.
Late Thursday, Machado in a post on X said she was “in a safe place and with more determination than ever” to continue her effort to get Maduro out of office. She also said that a person was shot "when the repressive forces of the regime arrested me.”
The Associated Press was unable to contact Machado for clarification of her statement. She told supporters she would explain the day’s events in more detail on Friday.
Meanwhile, Maduro’s supporters denied Machado had been detained, claiming that government opponents were trying to spread fake news to generate an international crisis.
AP Video shot by Andry Rincon and Juan Arraez
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/db920858bd60424bbc44756cdb51c0d5
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in January 14, 2025, 9:05 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News