Thursday was marked by mass marches and high-profile kidnappings in Venezuela, on the same day Canada recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the country's legitimate president.
Gonzalez is in exile in Spain, while Venezuela's de facto ruler, Nicolas Maduro, is still living in the Miraflores presidential palace, saying his party won the polls on July 28 last year. .
On Monday, Gonzalez met with the President of the United States Joe Biden in the Oval Office. After that meeting, Biden posted on social media that Gonzalez was the “real winner” of last year's election and that the country deserved a peaceful transfer of power.
The next day, Gonzalez announced that his son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, was kidnapped by hooded men while he was taking his two young children to school.
It was one of what appeared to be a new wave of arrests as the Venezuelan opposition stepped up its campaign to remove Maduro's authoritarian socialist government from power.
A leader will come out of hiding
Presidential candidate Gonzalez, who traveled today to the Dominican Republic seeking more international support, is not Venezuela's opposition leader. He is somewhat of a surrogate candidate for the real leader, Maria Corina Machado, who was barred from running for office by the courts of the Maduro government.
On Wednesday, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly spoke to Machado by phone. Soon after she tweeted a report which formally recognized Gonzalez as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Canada had previously expressed disbelief in the official results of last summer's election announced by the Maduro government, but had not yet taken steps to recognize Maduro's rival as the winner.
Gonzalez went into exile shortly after the Maduro regime responded to the election with a wave of arrests and repression, but Machado remained in the country, and spent much of the past six months in hiding .
Clear the daylights of confusion
On Wednesday, Machado said she would return to public view, while the opposition prepared a new campaign of street protests to demand that the election results be respected. The opposition planned to protest the swearing-in of Maduro into a third six-year term as president, which is scheduled to take place on Friday at the National Assembly in Caracas.
In recent days, Maduro has intervened displays of strength apparently intended to provoke opposition protests.
Today, Machado appeared from hiding to great rally destination in the Caracas district of Chacao, but she was apparently held captive by men on motorcycles when she left the scene.
Machado is often surrounded by dozens or even hundreds of supporters on motorcycles to protect her from government arrest teams, but this time the opposition said they were unable to protect her and one of injured her motorcycle accomplices when bullets were fired.
The arrest sparked outrage from the Venezuelan opposition, and from supporters around the world, including He mentions Polievrewife of the leader of Canada's Official Opposition.
Released from custody
Within two hours of her detention, a video on social media she showed Machado saying that she had been released, and that she was safe.
But the video was not posted by Machado's own account, or by other opposition channels, and some expressed doubts about its authenticity.
By the end of the afternoon, Machado's party, Vente Venezuela, released a report confirming that she went out.
“They took her by force,” the statement said. “During her abduction she had to record several videos, and then she was released. In the next few hours she will speak to the country and explain the situation.”
There was some speculation in opposition circles that the kidnapping and quick release could reflect divisions between hardliners and moderates within the Chavista government over how to deal with Machado and the protests.
