Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose nearly 12 years in office have been marked by a deep economic and social crisis, is set to be sworn in for a third term on Friday, staying in power despite a six-month dispute over a July election and international calls for him to stand aside.

With his challengers scattered and reeling, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is set to be sworn in for a third six-year term on Friday, shrugging off international condemnation of a sham election and a brutal crackdown on dissent.

Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado's aides said she was detained Thursday, followed moments later by official denials of her arrest, in a confusing episode that capped a day of protests seeking to block President Nicolás Maduro from clinging to power.

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, was arrested on Thursday while leading a protest against the swearing in of autocratic president Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro delivers a speech during a meeting of leaders of the member states of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America and the Treaty of Commerce and Promotion (ALBA-TCP),

Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was freed on Thursday, her Vente Venezuela movement said, shortly after she was detained amid gunshots while leaving a protest in eastern Caracas. Opposition demonstrations took place throughout the country in an 11th-hour effort to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro ahead of his third inauguration on Friday.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she is now safe after her aides said she was “intercepted” at a protest in Caracas on the eve of President Nicolas Maduro’s inauguration.