Before Maria Corina Machado was arrested by Nicolas Maduro¡¯s regime in Venezuela Thursday, her reemergence in public offered a powerful reminder of the opposition campaign she led this past summer.

Her supporters handed her rosaries and shouted chants of ¡°liberty¡± as she climbed to the top of a truck at an anti-Maduro rally and waved the nation¡¯s flag. It had been more than four months since Machado went into hiding following Maduro¡¯s contested win in the July 28 election.

Minutes later, there was a harsh snap back to reality when her party said she was attacked by the regime while leaving the event. Then, her stand-in candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, said she had been taken by government security forces.