MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela government arrests Deputy Freddy Guevara, breaks into Juan Guaidó's home

Guevara showed in a live broadcast through his Instagram account when agents of the Maduro regime approached him on a Caracas’ highway

The Venezuelan government's intelligence service took Deputy Freddy Guevara into custody on Monday, accusing him of “terrorism” and “treason” and broke into the home of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, the latter's wife informed.

Guaidó's wife Fabiana Rosales pointed out that agents from the Special Actions Force (FAES) were raiding the family's home: “Right now FAES officers are in the basement of my house. Hooded men with long weapons surrounding the truck where President Juan Guaidó is,” she wrote on Twitter.

Guevara showed in a live broadcast through his Instagram account when agents of the Maduro regime approached him on a eastern Caracas' highway. The leader of the centre-left opposition party, Voluntad Popular, was charged with “terrorism, disturbing the peace and treason”, according to charges released in a statement by Venezuela's attorney general, Tarek William Saab.

“Maduro's regime is currently taking Congressman Freddy Guevara into custody,” Rosales added.

“I am convinced that I did the right thing. I say to all of you that I still believe that the route is to achieve a National Salvation Agreement, and that may be contradictory at this time. Why negotiate with a dictatorship? Because one believes that it is the solution to get out of the crisis that Venezuela is suffering. I don't know what they are going to invent now, but I tell everyone that I did the right thing and they will try to take me by force,” he said in the final minutes of the broadcast.

#URGENTE La dictadura de Maduro pretende detener al diputado Freddy Guevara en la autopista Francisco Fajardo pic.twitter.com/7IfZdtxoLl

— Freddy Guevara (@FreddyGuevaraC) July 12, 2021

Guaidó later said that “We are in a dictatorship. The National Salvation Agreement has to do with achieving clear conditions for this tragedy to end. They are not going to stop us.”

After these events, Colombia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that “on behalf of the Colombian government it rejects the arbitrary detention of the leader of Voluntad Popular Freddy Guevara by the Nicolás Maduro regime. We demand guarantees for his life and his immediate freedom.”

Guevara had been granted a presidential pardon on August 31, 2020, and on September 9 he left the Chilean Embassy in Caracas, where he took refuge on November 4, 2017 after being accused of instigating the anti-government protests that took place that year.

The Colombian government also rejected the harassment against Guaidó, and his closest aides. “The international community must demand that these arbitrary acts cease, and all political prisoners be released. Our solidarity with Venezuela! ”, Added the statement.

Guaidó insisted he was not arrested thanks to the presence of the neighbors and the press. He also pointed out that the officers who tried to arrest him did not have any identification, so he described the attempted arrest as a kidnapping.

The Colombian government has recognized Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela since the beginning of 2019. Colombia and Venezuela have not had diplomatic relations since February 23, 2019 by order of Nicolás Maduro, in response to an attempt by Guaidó to enter the country from Cúcuta at the head of a humanitarian aid caravan.