President Nicolás Maduro will be sworn in for another six years on Friday, and he is hoping to use foreign prisoners to get his way on the global stage.

President Nicolás Maduro will extend his increasingly repressive rule over Venezuela until 2031 when he is sworn in on Friday, despite credible evidence that his opponent won the latest election and following protests against his plan to serve a third six-year term.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Friday will face more international rebuke than at any time in his 12 years in power.

It remains unclear how many Americans are currently held in Venezuela following the significant prisoner swap in 2023 when Washington and Caracas negotiated the release of dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, in exchange for Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro.

During her detention, an aide said, Maria Corina Machado “was forced to record several videos.” She has garnered enormous support for her opposition to Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia has urged the Venezuelan military to recognize him as their commander-in-chief and “put an end to the leadership” of President Nicolás Maduro,

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday denounced "another unacceptable act of repression" in Venezuela, after an opposition leader was briefly detained when leaving a rally against President Nicolas Maduro.

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Police are out in force in the streets of Venezuela’s capital as the opposition calls for major anti-government protests.

Venezuela is set to inaugurate a head of state on Friday – but there are still two men claiming to be the nation’s rightful president.

By Vivian Sequera and Mircely Guanipa CARACAS/MARACAY (Reuters) -Venezuelan opposition parties and their supporters - including leader Maria Corina Machado, who had been in hiding - protested around the country on Thursday in an eleventh-hour effort to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro,