Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was arrested on Thursday when her motorcycle convoy was fired upon by security forces as it departed an anti-government protest in Caracas, according to aides.
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Machado emerged from months of hiding earlier on Thursday to reappear in public as part of a last-ditch attempt to block President Nicolas Maduro from clinging to power.
Machado’s press team said in a social media post that security forces “violently intercepted” the convoy as it was leaving eastern Caracas.
“They wanted us to fight each other, but Venezuela is united, we are not afraid,” Machado shouted to a few hundred protesters from atop a truck in the capital moments before her arrest.
There were no immediate details on her whereabouts and Maduro’s government has yet to comment. But the shock arrest spurred calls for her immediate release from across Latin America, including the President of Panama.
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“Will the United Nations be capable enough to take action to rescue Maria Corina Machado?,” former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said on social media.