US President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday defended Venezuela’s opposition party leader and its presidential candidate as “freedom fighters” who must be protected, after a major rally against ruler Nicolas Maduro.
Trump’s comment in a social media post echoes his first-term policy of “maximum pressure” on the authorities in Caracas.
Maduro is set to be sworn in Friday for a third term, claiming to have won the election despite the opposition providing polling station-level results showing it prevailing by a wide margin.
“Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people,” Trump said on his platform Truth Social, after the opposition said Machado was arrested following a Caracas rally.
The government denied arresting her.
“These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE!” Trump added.
The opposition presidential candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who has just returned to Latin America from exile in Spain, quickly expressed gratitude for Trump’s remarks.
“Thanks, President-elect Trump! Venezuelans know we can count on your determination regarding the Venezuelan cause,” Gonzalez Urrutia wrote on social media.
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© Agence France-Presse
