As the Venezuelan leader begins his third term, Trump warns Maduro, and the US increases sanctions.

Before Nicolás Maduro, the disputed president of Venezuela, assumed office on Friday for a third term, President-elect Donald Trump issued a warning.

The Venezuelan leader, who is considered a "dictator" by U.S. senators, is now scheduled to remain in office until 2031 despite strong domestic and international opposition to the July election, in which Maduro declared victory without presenting ballot-box evidence.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado came out of hiding on Thursday to join hundreds of anti-Maduro demonstrators in Caracas, the country's capital, and call for the swearing-in of opposition candidate Edmundo González.

Machado was briefly detained by government security forces after they "violently intercepted" her convoy as she attempted to leave the protests, the Associated Press reported.

Trump took to social media to demand she remain "safe and alive."

"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," he wrote. "These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and must stay safe and alive."

The opposition figure was apparently forced to record several videos before she was released, though the details of those recordings remain unclear. 

Maduro’s supporters have reportedly denied that Machado was arrested.

On Friday, the Biden administration backed the efforts by the opposition leaders and, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, "President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia should be sworn in, and the democratic transition should begin.

"Today, Nicolás Maduro held an illegitimate presidential inauguration in Venezuela in a desperate attempt to seize power. The Venezuelan people and world know the truth – Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency," the secretary said in a statement. "The United States rejects the National Electoral Council’s fraudulent announcement that Maduro won the presidential election and does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the president of Venezuela. 

"We stand ready to support a return to democracy in Venezuela," Blinken added. 

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday slapped a new round of sanctions on the Maduro regime, this time targeting "officials who lead key economic and security agencies enabling Nicolás Maduro’s repression and subversion of democracy in Venezuela."

Eight officials were named in the sanctions, including the recently appointed head of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, Hector Obregon, as well as the nation’s transportation minister, Ramon Velasquez, according to a statement by the department.

"In addition, OFAC is sanctioning high-level Venezuelan officials in the military and police who lead entities with roles in carrying out Maduro’s repression and human rights abuses against democratic actors," the statement said. 

Washington also redoubled its sanctions against Maduro, raising the incentive to $25 million for information that would result in his arrest or conviction.

In addition to a $15 million bounty for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, the same sum was offered for Diosdado Cabello, the Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace.

The sanctions also named police and military personnel.

About 2,000 people who support Maduro have had their visas restricted, Blinken stated on Friday.