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.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday condemned the "unacceptable act of repression" in Venezuela, hours after the brief arrest of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

The Maduro government says it has arrested at least nine U.S. citizens in the months since Venezuela’s widely discredited presidential election.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, in office since 2013, is due to take the oath of office for a third term Friday despite a global outcry that brought thousands out in protest on the ceremony's eve.

Machado, a former lawmaker who has spearheaded the opposition to President Nicolas Maduro in recent years, was detained by security agents who shot at motorcycles she was using to leave a protest in Caracas, the capital, according to posts on social media from her party. She was freed about an hour later, according to the party.

Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was freed on Thursday after a brief detention, her Vente Venezuela movement said on social media.

The opposition says María Corina Machado was then freed on the eve of President Nicolás Maduro's inauguration.

Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was detained at a march in Caracas on Thursday in her first public appearance in months and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, demanded she be freed immediately.

Thousands of Venezuelan citizens filled the streets of Caracas on Thursday to protest against the government of Nicolás Maduro, less than 24 hours before the presidential inauguration. The president claims to have been re-elected in July and is seeking to take office on Friday for another six years.

A new presidential term is set to begin officially in Venezuela on January 10. Despite the electoral commission’s failure to release the results of the July 28 election, Nicolás Maduro’s