Machado’s appearance at the rally was her first public appearance in months, since a government crackdown on Venezeulan opposition figures and their supporters last year.

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González, who claims to have defeated President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, says that his son-in-law has been kidnapped in Venezuela’s capital.

Venezuela pro-democracy figurehead Maria Corina Machado emerged from months of hiding to lead a mass protest in Caracas Thursday, before conflicting claims that she was briefly detained by state secur