Sawt Falasteen - Venezuela repression increases ahead of crunch anti-Maduro protests

Opposition parties and NGOs reported a wave of detentions ahead of the protests, including a press freedom activist and a politician who ran against Maduro in the July election that the 62-year-old strongman is widely accusing of stealing.

Maduro has been in power since 2013 following the death of his political mentor, left-wing firebrand Hugo Chavez.

His re-election in 2018 was also widely rejected as fraudulent but he managed to cling onto power through a mix of populism and repression, even as the economy imploded.

The latest arrests added to tensions in the capital Caracas, already on a knife-edge as ruling party loyalists limber up for a street showdown with the opposition.

- 'Iron horses with Maduro' -

Around 3,000 pro-Maduro bikers roared through the streets of Caracas Wednesday, horns blaring, vowing to ensure Maduro was not impeded from taking office.

"On your knees, gentlemen. The iron horses with Nicolas Maduro!" one biker in jeans and sunglasses shouted as he punched the air with his fist.

Dozens of employees of a state housing program wearing T-shirts marked "I swear by Maduro for the future" also paraded through the streets.

The opposition has called for "millions" of Venezuelans to demonstrate on Thursday in support of its exiled presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the US and several Latin American countries have recognized as the legitimate election winner.

Venezuela-based opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since the election, has vowed to join the protests.

"I would not miss this historic day for anything in the world," she told AFP in an interview.

But it was unclear how many Venezuelans would fall in beside her given the threat of fierce reprisals.

More than 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and about 200 injured in the protests that followed Maduro's disputed victory claim in the July 28 election.

In a sign that the government will brook no dissent, huge numbers of troops and police have been deployed again throughout central Caracas and "Wanted" posters offering a $100,000 government reward for the capture of Gonzalez Urrutia have been pasted on street signs.

The 75-year-old opposition candidate is on a tour of Latin American capitals to pile pressure Maduro to relinquish power.

Earlier this week he met in Washington with US President Joe Biden, who backed a "peaceful transfer back to democratic rule."

He and Machado held telephone talks Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who insisted that the "will of the Venezuelan people must be respected" -- a reference to the opposition's claim of election victory.

Gonzalez Urrutia has voiced tentative plans to fly to Caracas this week to take power but the plan was deemed unlikely to go ahead.

On Wednesday, he handed over the unofficial July 28 voting tallies which the opposition said proved his victory to Panama for safekeeping.

- 'FBI official' arrested -

Maduro, who frequently claims to be the target of US coup plots, meanwhile claimed a senior FBI and a senior US military official were among seven so-called "mercenaries" arrested a day earlier.

He said the two Americans, about whom he gave no further details, were arrested alongside two Colombian "hitmen" and three Ukrainians, all of whom he said were plotting "terrorist acts."

Several civil society and opposition figures have also been rounded up in a week beset with tensions.

The Popular Democratic Front, a coalition of opposition parties, said Enrique Marquez, who ran in the July election but later backed Gonzalez Urrutia's victory claim was "arbitrarily detained".

The Espacio Publico press freedom NGO said its director Carlos Correa was detained in central Caracas by "hooded men presumed to be officials."

A day earlier, Gonzalez Urrutia said his son-in-law was detained while taking his children to school.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, historically a leftist ally of Maduro, criticized the detentions and said he would not attend Maduro's swearing-in.

Panama's Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha, for his part, described Maduro as a "tyrant."

B.Mahmoud--SF-PST