Fear in Venezuela Maduro seeks to cement third term as 1,600 detainees languish in cells

Nicolás Maduro calls his political crackdown Operación Tun Tun (Operation Knock Knock) after the spine-chilling visits his security forces pay their targets.

- Tom Phillips, Clavel Rangel

But when members of Venezuela's secret police came for Aixa Daniela Boada López, they announced their arrival with a thump not a tap.

"It was about half past midnight when we heard this loud bang on the roof," said one witness to her detention in the industrial complex of Ciudad Guayana on 1 August.

Black-clad agents from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, Sebin, were seen smashing their way inside. They carried guns and a picture of the 19-year-old law student they had come to arrest. López was bundled into a vehicle as panicked relatives looked on.

"Neighbours came out to try and protect her but they pointed their weapons at them and took the girl," said the witness, asking for anonymity for fear of a similar fate.

Nearly a month after López's capture, her future remains uncertain, as do those of more than 1,600 people detained during Maduro's roundup of perceived opponents. For protesting against his widely doubted claim to have won the 28 July presidential election, López and others face charges of criminal association and terrorism that could lead to decades in jail.

Venezuela's outlook is equally unsure. "These days, fear and uncertainty are the most accurate words to describe the situation," said Gonzalo Himiob, a writer and activist involved in documenting rights violations some liken to those committed under the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Maduro's administration tried to draw a line under the crisis this week with the announcement from the pro-government supreme court that it had corroborated his victory over his rival, Edmundo González.

The court's verdict flew in the face of growing international suspicions - even among leftwing politicians traditionally supportive of the movement created by Maduro's mentor, Hugo Chávez - that the incumbent's claim to victory did not stack up.