Venezuelan authorities arrest opposition security chief ahead of poll

Venezuelan authorities have arrested opposition leader Maria Corina Machado's security chief, she said Wednesday -- the latest of dozens of her team members rounded up ahead of the July 28 presidential election.

Milciades Avila, a former policeman who has worked for Machado for a decade, "was kidnapped by the regime" on trumped-up accusations of gender-based violence, Machado wrote on X.

"I am alerting the world to the escalation of repression by (incumbent President Nicolas) Maduro against those who work on the campaign or help us anywhere in the country," she added.

Venezuelan authorities have not commented on the charges, which Machado said arose from a confrontation after a recent campaign event between opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and a group of women sympathetic to the Maduro regime.

The event, she said, "was a provocation planned to leave us unprotected 11 days from July 28... Maduro has made violence and repression his campaign."

Rights group Foro Penal on Tuesday reported 102 arrests of people linked to the opposition presidential campaign.

"This reflects a clear pattern of action against activists, militants or even collaborators, people who offer their services to this political option," said its director, Gonzalo Himiob.

The government accuses the opposition of conspiring against Maduro, whose reelection in 2018 was rejected as illegitimate by most Western and Latin American countries.

He is now seeking a third, successive term.

Machado, who overwhelmingly won an opposition primary last year, has been barred from seeking election by institutions loyal to Maduro's government.