The Venezuelan government released opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday after capturing her in a violent raid in which shots were fired and drones were used to pinpoint her location, members of her team told the Miami Herald.

Machado, deemed as the top leader of the Venezuelan opposition, was expected to appear on video Thursday evening to give details of her detention.

In a brief message posted in its X account, Machado’s team confirmed that she had been released by the Nicolas Maduro regime after her violent detention.

“Today, #9Jan, leaving the rally in Chacao, Caracas, María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) was intercepted and thrown off the motorcycle she was riding. Firearms were fired during the incident. She was taken away by force. During the period of her kidnapping she was forced to record several videos and was later released,” it said. “In the next few hours she will address the country to explain the events."

Previously, members of Machado’s team had told the Miami Herald that regime security forces used drones to follow Machado after she left the demonstration and that they used the information to set up an ambush.

In a brief message on social media Thursday night, Machado said that she had managed to reach a safe place but added that one man was wounded by a bullet when regime forces assaulted her.

“My heart goes out to the Venezuelan who was shot when the regime’s repressive forces detained me. I am now in a safe place and more determined than ever to continue with you UNTIL THE END! Tomorrow I will inform you of what happened today and what is coming,” she said on her X account.

The news the Machado had been detained was received with alarm by U.S. authorities who regularly keep an eye on Venezuela, including President-elect Donald Trump.

“Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime,” Trump wrote in his X account. “The great Venezuelan American community in the United States overwhelmingly support a free Venezuela, and strongly supported me. These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and MUST stay SAFE and ALIVE!”

In Washington, a National Security Council official also deplored the regime’s actions. “We are tracking very closely public reports of Maduro and his representatives arresting opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as part of their campaign of intimidation against Venezuela’s democratic opposition. We condemn such arrests, repression and intimidation, which cannot obscure the fact that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia is the true winner of the July 28 elections.“

Machado had appeared previously before thousands of supporters in Chacao amid a series of demonstrations held inside and outside Venezuela in support of Gonzalez, who the opposition says won the July 28 election by defeating Maduro by a margin of 67% to 30%.

Gonzalez, who left Venezuela in September to avoid arrest, is scheduled to return on Friday to be sworn in as president, despite plans by Maduro to do the same.

Standing on the roof of a truck in front of an avenue packed with supporters, Machado said the regime had only a few hours left and declared that the regime’s efforts to intimidate people to stay home had failed. “I have never felt so proud in my life. All over Venezuela people took to the streets.”

She had previously said through her X account: “This is over. Venezuela will be free!”

Machado had not appeared in public for four months, remaining in hiding in response to the regime’s frequent threats to arrest her. But she called on all Venezuelans to take to the streets this week to defend the election results.

The opposition’s declaration of victory are accepted by a growing number of countries, whose governments say that the regime’s claim that Maduro won with 52% of the vote is not believable, specially because of its refusal to provide supporting evidence as his opponents have done.

The overwhelming majority of Venezuelans — 90% according to the latest polls — believe Maduro’s claims that he won the election are fraudulent.

Fearing that Gonzalez’s return to Venezuela this week might lead to major unrest, Maduro mobilized the country’s military, sending soldiers to patrol the streets of major cities and carrying out new arrests of opponents and individuals he calls mercenaries.

Events in Venezuela were watched with great concern in Miami-Dade, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S. County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava condemned “the assault and kidnapping” of Machado by Maduro’s forces. “We stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela in demanding her swift release and an end to this brutal regime,” she said.

Similar comments were made in Doral, a city where 40% of the 84,000 residents are Venezuelans. Mayor Christi Fraga, Vice Mayor Maureen Porras and Doral’s only Venezuelan council member, Rafael Pineyro, also spoke in support of Machado.

Fraga condemned Machado’s kidnapping on Instagram, calling it “another injustice of Maduro’s regime” and reaffirming her support for the Venezuelan people’s fight for liberty and democracy.

“The fall of the regime is inevitable. If anything were to happen to María Corina Machado, the United States must act without fear in the international community,” Pineyro said. “My call is for international intervention to rescue Venezuela. Sanctions and other conversations starting tomorrow must be ruled out. Military intervention is needed to help free a country kidnapped by drug traffickers.”

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(McClatchy Washington correspondent Michael Wilner and el Nuevo Herald reporter Verónica Egui Brito contributed to this story.)

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