elections due to government threats, a revelation that has renewed demands to overturn the ban. Barbara Cesar Siero, 51, a Supreme Court justice from December 2014 to February 2024, claimed that two of her brothers and her sister-in-law, all military personnel, were arrested in December 2023 in an attempt to force her to sign the ban.

Machado won an opposition primary in 2023 to take on then-president Nicolas Maduro in the following year's election, but the ban prevented her from formally being named as a candidate. Her party designated Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a then-unknown diplomat, as her replacement at short notice. Maduro was eventually declared the winner of the July 2024 vote, but the opposition claimed it was marred by fraud and the results were not recognized by much of the international community.

In December 2023, after her relatives were arrested, Siero said she was brought nine orders to sign, including the ban on Machado. "I thought to myself: maybe if I sign, they'll give them back...I ended up signing, and they kept them in detention", she said. In January, Maduro was captured by the US military and taken to New York to face drug trafficking and other charges, in an operation that Washington said was justified in part due to the disputed election. (Bssnews)