The Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, has said intelligence agents arrested his chief of staff after a pre-dawn raid, signalling that President Nicolás Maduro may be cracking down on the opposition’s challenge to his rule.
Guaidó invoked the constitution in January to assume the interim presidencyafter declaring Maduro’s 2018 re-election a fraud, and he has been recognised by dozens of western nations as the country’s legitimate leader.
Maduro, who has overseen a dramatic collapse of the country’s economy, has called Guaidó a puppet of the United States and said he should “face justice”, but has not explicitly ordered his arrest.
“They have kidnapped @robertomarrero, my chief of staff,” Guaidó tweeted, adding the Caracas residences of Marrero and an opposition legislator, Sergio Vergara, had been raided before dawn. “We do not know his whereabouts. He should be freed immediately.”
Secuestraron a @ROBERTOMARRERO, jefe de mi despacho. El denunció a viva voz que le sembraron dos fusiles y una granada, se lo dijo al diputado @SergioVergaraG, su vecino. El procedimiento comenzó a las 2 am aprox. Desconocemos su paradero. Debe ser liberado de inmediato.
— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) March 21, 2019
Venezuela’s information ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Guaidó travelled around South America in February to drum up diplomatic support for his government, defying a travel ban imposed by the pro-government supreme court. He re-entered the country via Venezuela’s principal airport this month without being detained by immigration officials.
Dozens of countries including the US, major European powers and most South American nations have backed Guaidó and declared Maduro’s rule illegitimate.
Venezuela is reeling from annual inflation topping 2m per cent, which has fuelled malnutrition and preventable disease and spurred an exodus of more than 3 million citizens since 2015.
Maduro has said his government is the victim of an “economic war” led by his political adversaries and has blamed US financial and oil sector sanctions for the country’s situation.