Opposition leader María Corina Machado says Maduro kidnapped her campaign managers, vandalized offices

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said this Tuesday that the Maduro regime kidnapped two of its regional leaders and vandalized 10 of its political headquarters in several states throughout the country.

The opposition leader said that her campaign managers were “intercepted and taken away” as part of a kidnapping effort that was “duly documented and recorded.”

Security cameras at the scene recorded the kidnapping showed how one of the managers was ambushed by a group of people and forced into a van that quickly left the area.

Witnesses indicated that the manager was intercepted by members of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) when he was traveling on a street in the Vargas state.

Machado also said that several headquarters of his political party vandalized her headquarters with graffiti, withs slogans commonly used by the Nicolás Maduro regime.

In front of the house where Vente Venezuela operates, in Caracas, Marxist Chavismo sympathizers painted the phrase “Bolivarian Force” in red letters, in reference to a political plan announced by Maduro last week to combat “any terrorist attempt.”

“They believe that with this they are going to intimidate the will of a people who are determined to achieve change,” Machado pointed out.

“Nicolás Maduro has chosen to become a repressive candidate,” she added. “As he knows he doesn't have votes, he tries to hide behind threats, guns, or sentences, because he knows he's going to lose. Leave the fear and measure yourself!”

From the headquarters of his political party Vente Venezuela, in Caracas, Machado indicated that the kidnappings of Juan Freites, head of Machado's campaign command in Vargas’s state, and Luis Camacaro, campaign director of the opposition in the state of Yaracuy, occurred in the last 24 hours, warning that there are other of his collaborators who are being persecuted.

Machado called this Tuesday for a call for the 66th anniversary of the fall of the military dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, which would serve to present an alliance around her candidacy, but the opposition's plans were displaced after announcing a Chavista march through the same anniversary.

The Chavista mobilization passed through the area where Machado had called and ended in the center of Caracas with a speech by Maduro.

According to an agreement signed by the regime and the opposition in a negotiation mediated by Norway, Venezuela must hold presidential elections in the second half of 2024.