The day before, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in the statement that the US would continue to use the full weight of US economic and diplomatic power to press for the "restoration of democracy in Venezuela", Trend reports citing Sputnik.
Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly speaker Juan Guaido was allowed to walk free after brief detention on Sunday, according to the TN news website. The speaker was detained en route to the northern coastal town of Caraballeda near Caracas. He was reportedly released less than an hour later.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that Guaido had been detained by the country's intelligence agents, two days after he was declared the interim President of Venezuela by the disempowered National Assembly.
"Alert the world and the country that today # 13Ene a SEBIN command intercepted the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela @jguaido and we do not know his whereabouts," a message on Guaidó's official Twitter account read.
Later in the day, Organization of American States (OAS) President Luis Almagro accused Venezuelan authorities of kidnapping Guaido.
"[We] totally condemn and reject the kidnapping of Venezuelan interim president Juan Guaido. The international community must stop the crimes of [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro and his henchmen," Almagro tweeted.
Earlier this week, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for the second presidential term for the period from 2019 until 2025.
Maduro has faced criticism from a number of states after his re-election in May, with some countries claiming that the vote was illegitimate, something vehemently denied by Caracas.
Earlier in January, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said following the meeting of the Lima Group foreign ministers that the union did not recognize the legitimacy of Maduro's new presidential term that will begin on January 10 and urged him to call a new presidential election.