Venezuela arrests security chief for opposition leader days ahead of presidential vote

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Officials in Venezuela arrested the head of security for the country’s top opposition leader on Wednesday, a little more than a week before President Nicolás Maduro faces a tough reelection.

Former lawmaker and opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado said that Milciades Ávila was arrested on what she said were trumped up charges of violence against women. The accusation stems from a heated incident over the weekend when, according to videos posted on social media, a group of Maduro supporters began trading insults with Machado’s aides at a roadside restaurant on their way home from a campaign event outside Caracas.

Machado was banned from running against Maduro after winning an opposition-organized primary last year. She is instead crisscrossing the country with a hand selected stand-in candidate, Edmundo González, a retired diplomat previously unknown to Venezuelans.

"Ávila has traveled with me around the country and risked his life to defend me,” Machado wrote on X. “I’m sending an alert to the entire world about the increasing repression by Maduro against our campaign workers.”

There was no immediate comment from Maduro’s government about the arrest.

Machado said that at least eight people connected to the opposition campaign have been detained in recent weeks across the country, including the owner of a sound truck Machado and González hired during a recent rally in the central city of Valencia.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america