Donald Trump gives his support to Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect of Venezuela and to María Corina Machado

President-elect Donald Trump recognized diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia as Venezuela's president-elect. He also endorsed the leadership of María Corina Machado, the main leader of the Venezuelan opposition. Machado was briefly kidnapped today and released after returning to the streets after months in hiding.

"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 on the social network Truth.

"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!"

The message from Trump, who will take office on January 20, comes after Machado's Venezuela Command claims a "violent interception" against the opposition leader, who led a mass rally in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

According to several reports, security officials of the Maduro regime, with motorcycles, drones and Jeep vans, intercepted Machado, who was going to take shelter behind the demonstration while being driven away on a motorcycle.

At the moment of the interception, regime officials shot at the motorcycle and hurt the driver. Machado was captured and, according to Comando Venezuela, later released after she was forced to record videos which were later published on social media by Chavista spokespersons, who claimed, without evidence, that the alleged kidnapping was a "self-attack."

While the day in Venezuela was marked by Machado's brief kidnapping, who will soon address the country to explain what happened and probably give more indications to the people, earlier, the streets of Venezuela were taken over by hundreds of thousands of citizens who attended the peaceful demonstration called by Machado for this January 9.

Demonstrators and activists confirmed to VOZ the illegal detention of Venezuelan citizens in places such as Maracaibo, one of the country's major cities. However, there were also reports that members of the Venezuelan police, unlike on other occasions, withdrew from the meeting points without dispersing or repressing the demonstrators.

There are still no clear figures on the number of people arrested during the day of protests.

The protests and Machado's exciting public appearance preceded January 10, when the Venezuelan regime scheduled the swearing-in of dictator Nicolas Maduro, who was illegitimately announced as the winner of the presidential elections of July 28.

González Urrutia, recognized by the United States and most of the international community as the legitimate winner of the elections, has been touring the region in recent weeks under the promise that he will return to Venezuela to be sworn in as the country's legitimate president on January 10.

In the face of much uncertainty and tension, Venezuelans see the future of the country being defined in the coming days, with the opposition preparing to enforce the will of the people and the Maduro regime seeking at all costs to entrench itself in power.