MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela: Machado's chief bodyguard joins list of political prisoners

A distinguished former police officer, Ávila has been a bodyguard with Machado for 10 years

Venezuela's disenfranchised opposition leader María Corina Machado, who endorses Edmundo González Urrutia's candidacy for the July 28 elections, said early Wednesday that the Nicolás Maduro regime had abducted her security team chief Milcíades Ávila and his whereabouts were unknown.

 “I hold Nicolás Maduro responsible for the physical integrity of Milciades Ávila and of the other 24 people of our teams kidnapped and today prisoners of tyranny,” Machado posted on X.

She also explained that Ávila has been accused of gender violence “against some women who last Saturday tried to attack Edmundo and myself in La Encrucijada” at a restaurant on the road to Caracas from Valencia, where she and González had stopped for refreshments after a campaign rally which had also been marred by excessive police street blocks keeping followers from attending the gathering in the city 125 kilometers southwest of Caracas.

“There are dozens of witnesses and videos that prove that this act was a planned provocation to leave us without protection 11 days before July 28,” Machado insisted while noting that Ávila had been one of her bodyguards for 10 years.

A distinguished former police officer, Ávila “has accompanied me all over the country and has risked his life to defend me,” added Machado, who also claimed that “Maduro has made of violence and repression his campaign.”

Earlier this week, the NGO Foro Penal denounced that at least 102 people linked to González Urrutia's Democratic Unitary Platform had been arrested, of whom 77 were detained at the July 4 campaign-launching event.

It shows “a clear pattern of action against activists, militants, or people who provide their services” to González Urrutia and Machado, Foro Penal's Gonzalo Himiob said.

According to foreign media, there are over 300 political prisoners in Venezuela.