Leading Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa was arrested yesterday on charges of conspiring to sabotage upcoming parliamentary and regional elections that the opposition has vowed to boycott.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello linked Guanipa’s arrest to what the government called a foiled plot by foreign mercenaries to sabotage elections.

He added that 70 other people had also been arrested in connection with the alleged plot, including citizens of Ecuador, Argentina, Germany, Serbia and a few Pakistani nationals.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued a statement expressing concern over the arrest of opposition leader and over 70 individuals in what he labeled a new wave of repression from the Maduro regime.