Masked intelligence service agents have arrested the mayor of Caracas over what socialist President Nicolas Maduro alleges was a coup plot financed by the US and directed "from Washington".
The US immediately dismissed the claims as "baseless and false" and said it was an attempt to blame Washington or other countries for the problems of Venezuela, which is facing economic collapse - culminating in critical shortages of basic goods - and rocketing crime.
The arrest of Mayor Antonio Ledezma, a veteran opposition figure, comes nearly a year to the day of that of Leopoldo Lopez, an opposition leader detained amid fierce protests against Maduro that turned deadly.
The 59-year-old Ledezma tweeted on Thursday afternoon that government police were on the way to his office to arrest him. Agents, who arrived on armoured vehicles, shot in the air to disperse a crowd that gathered nearby.
His wife, Mitzy Capriles, took to his Twitter account to report his detention shortly after, and blamed Maduro.
"They took Antonio Ledezma away ... They didn't give him time to say anything," she wrote.
Ledezma is a senior opposition figure who was elected in 2009 as mayor and reelected in 2013, although the Maduro government has moved to restrict his powers.
Maduro calls Ledezma "The Vampire" and has accused him of being behind last year's anti-government protests that left 43 dead.
Maduro linked him to a supposed coup plotted by military aviation officials with what Maduro alleges is help from the United States.
Like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, Maduro frequently announces supposed coup attempts and blames right-wing forces, as well as the US and Colombia.
Almost simultaneously, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki rubbished the Maduro claim.
"The allegations made by the Venezuelan government that the United States is involved in coup plotting and destabilisation are baseless and false," she said in a statement.
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