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Reuters

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido led a rally on Sunday after being briefly detained by intelligence agents, days after saying he would be willing to replace the increasingly isolated President Nicolas Maduro.
Guaido’s comments on Friday spurred some opposition sympathisers to conclude that he had declared himself interim president, and led several government officials to say he should be arrested for treason.
Intelligence agents on Sunday pulled him from his car on the way from the capital, Caracas, to the coastal town of Caraballeda, his wife and opposition legislators said.
He was released soon thereafter, they said.
“I want to send a message to Miraflores – the game has changed,” said Guaido, the head of the opposition-run congress, referring to the presidential palace, from a stage surrounded by cheering opposition sympathisers.
“Here we are! We are not afraid!”

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez told state television the detention was an “irregular procedure” by rogue agents who wanted to help the opposition create a “media show,” adding that the agents would face disciplinary action.
Guaido called Rodriguez’s comments a sign that the government had lost control of its own security forces.
Asked whether he should be considered interim president, Guaido responded: “That has been clarified several times.”
President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on Venezuela tightens, warns of Trump threat
The US State Department on Saturday had called on Venezuelan security forces to respect the “safety and welfare” of Guaido and other legislators, calling for an “orderly transition to a new government.”
Maduro was sworn in to a second term on Thursday, defying critics in the United States and Latin America who called him an illegitimate usurper of a nation where economic chaos has wrought a humanitarian crisis.
A regional bloc, known as the Lima Group, that opposes the continuation of Maduro’s leadership in Venezuela, said it condemned the “arbitrary detention” of Guaido. It added it would reject any pressure on congress or its members.

The once-booming OPEC nation’s economy has collapsed following the fall of oil prices in 2014. Inflation is close to 2 million per cent and some 10 per cent of the population has emigrated since 2015 in search of better living conditions.
Maduro says the country is the victim of an “economic war” led by his political adversaries with the help of Washington. He insists the 2018 vote was legitimate and that the opposition boycotted it because it knew it would lose.


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Venezuela

Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido addresses rally after brief detention

Venezuela’s National Assembly president Juan Guaido, accompanied by his wife Fabiana Rosales gestures before a crowd of opposition supporters during an open meeting in Caraballeda, Vargas State, Venezuela, on January 13, 2019. Photo: AFP

National Assembly President Juan Guaido, top left, is surrounded by bodyguards as he leaves an opposition rally where he spoke in Caraballeda, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019. The new head of Venezuela's increasingly defiant congress was pulled from his vehicle and briefly detained by police Sunday, a day after the U.S. backed him assuming the presidency as a way out of the country's deepening crisis. Guaido's wife Fabiana Rosales stands next to him, right. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's National Assembly president Juan Guaido (C) embraces his wife Fabiana Rosales (R) and his mother as they are surrounded by opposition supporters during an open meeting in Caraballeda, Vargas State, Venezuela, on January 13, 2019. - The president of the opposition-controlled but sidelined National Assembly was released less than an hour after being arrested by Venezuelan intelligence agents on Sunday, his wife said. Guaido had directly challenged the legitimacy of Nicolas Maduro as the president was sworn in for a second term on Thursday, calling for a transitional government ahead of new elections. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)

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Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Photo: Bloomberg

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Supporters of Guaido line the streets at rally as he says he could replace President Nicolas Maduro


Supporters of Guaido line the streets at rally as he says he could replace President Nicolas Maduro.


Americas and the Caribbean