Venezuela opposition leader Guanipa under arrest-interior minister
May 23 (Reuters) - Well-known Venezuela opposition figure Juan Pablo Guanipa, a close ally of Maria Corina Machado, is under arrest for allegedly leading a terrorist plot, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Friday.
Officials regularly accuse the opposition of conspiring with countries such as the United States to commit terrorism, overthrow President Nicolas Maduro and attack Venezuela's power grid. The opposition has always denied the accusations.
Guanipa, a lawyer and long-time politician, has been in hiding since a presidential election last year. Machado, who was barred from running for president but remains popular among many Venezuelans, is also in hiding.
Electoral authorities and the country's top court backed Maduro as the winner, but have not offered ballot box level tallies of votes. The opposition, which has published detailed tallies, says its candidate roundly won.
The opposition and rights groups have decried a brutal crackdown, including arrests, since the vote.
"He thought he was untouchable, invisible," Cabello said in a statement broadcast on state television, showing a video of Guanipa, clad in a flak jacket, being arrested by masked agents.
Seventy people, including foreigners, have so far been detained in the alleged plot to carry out attacks during Sunday's regional and legislative elections, Cabello added.
His arrest was motivated by the government's fear of the Venezuelan people and their votes last year, Guanipa said in a statement posted to his X account.
"Brothers, if you are reading this it is because I have been kidnapped by the forces of the regime of Nicolas Maduro," the statement said. "I don't know what will happen to me in the coming hours, days and weeks. But I am sure that we will win this long fight against the dictatorship."
Guanipa's brother Pedro was arrested in September for alleged corruption at the mayor's office in Maracaibo, where he was an official.
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