Overview

• Since July 18, opposition leader María Corina Machado reported more than 20 detentions or disappearances within 72 hours in what she calls a brutal wave of repression
• The arrests targeted leading opposition activists and 2024 presidential election witnesses after a U.S.-Venezuela prisoner swap last Friday
• The Maduro regime has used detentions as leverage in diplomatic deals, periodically freeing select prisoners in exchanges with the United States and El Salvador
• Opposition and human rights groups estimate over 900 people remain detained or missing for political reasons nationwide
• Machado, now in hiding, has renewed urgent appeals to the international community and human rights bodies to hold Maduro’s government accountable