venezuela situation

“We want peace for Venezuela, for our family members,” a protester, who chose not to be identified, told reporting teams on the ground.

Maduro decried the protests on Monday, saying his government “knows how to confront this situation and defeat those who are violent.” He also claimed, without providing evidence, that the majority of the protestors were hate-filled criminals and that their plan was hatched in the US.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said 749 people had been detained in Monday’s protests. Saab rejected the notion that the demonstrations were peaceful, claiming that they resulted in the injuries of 48 military and police officers.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López called the protests an attempted coup d’état and said the armed forces reaffirmed their “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” to Maduro.

Venezuelan opposition party Voluntad Popular said Tuesday that its leader Freddy Superlano has been kidnapped. Several people dressed in black allegedly intercepted the car in which Superlano was traveling, forcibly removed him and put him in a van, according to a video the party published on social media.

CNN is trying to contact the Venezuelan authorities to get their version of this complaint.

A resident of Caracas who did not want to be identified over safety concerns told CNN they witnessed the incident. “Around 9.40 a.m., I heard some trucks and brakes,” he told CNN. “Several hooded individuals with long weapons get out of the gray truck. They start hitting the car windows with their weapons.”

According to the local, two passengers inside the car that was being targeted were then taken. “Everything happened in less than three minutes,” they said.

For Venezuelans this is grimly familiar territory. Previous periods of opposition protests have resulted in harsh crackdowns by the police and military, which have a long history of protecting the Chavismo system, including in 2017 and 2019.