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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Juan Guaido’s deputy arrested in Venezuela

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Caracas: Venezuelan intelligence agents on Wednesday detained a senior leader of the opposition-dominated National Assembly, the first arrest of a lawmaker since the failed uprising against President Nicolas Maduro last week.


Edgar Zambrano said agents had towed him and his car to prison after he refused to get out of the vehicle.


Zambrano is deputy to National Assembly speaker Juan Guaido, who is recognised as the country’s leader by more than 50 states, and who organised the April 30 revolt.


“We warn the people of Venezuela and the international community: the regime has kidnapped the first vice-president” of the National Assembly, said Guaido, who heads the body and has been in a power struggle with Maduro since declaring himself acting president in January.


“They are trying to destroy the power representing all Venezuelans, but they will not achieve it,” Guaido said.


Shortly before his arrest, Zambrano said on Twitter that agents of the SEBIN intelligence agency had encircled his vehicle outside the headquarters of the Democratic Action party.


“As we refused to get out of our vehicle, they used a tow truck to forcibly take us directly to the Helicoide,” a notorious political prison and the headquarters of the secret service, he tweeted.


The United States, European Union and several Latin American states criticised Zambrano’s arrest.


On the Twitter account of its now-closed embassy in Caracas, Washington called the detention “illegal and inexcusable.”


It warned of “consequences” if he is not immediately released.


Early on Thursday, US President Donald Trump — whose country was among the first to back Guaido — said he was “discussing the terrible abuses by Maduro.”


Trump did not mention Zambrano but said the US will stand with the people of Venezuela “for however long it takes!”


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