Venezuela’s main opposition leader María Corina Machado has accused strongman President Nicolás Maduro of unleashing a horrific “terror campaign” in his attempt to stay in power.

Two weeks after Maduro’s widely questioned claim that he won the July 28 election, human rights activists say he has launched a brutal crackdown on the opposition to silence those convinced his rival, Edmundo González, is the real winner. More than 1,300 people have been arrested, including 116 youths, according to the human rights group Foro Penal. At least 24 people have reportedly been killed.

From her undisclosed hideout, Machado – a charismatic conservative and González’s main supporter – called on governments around the world to oppose Maduro’s escalating crackdown.

“What is happening in Venezuela is horrific. Innocent people are being arrested or disappearing at this very moment,” said the 56-year-old former congresswoman, who supported González after authorities banned her from running.

Maduro’s regime has dubbed part of its rigorous approach “Operación Tun Tun” – “Operation Knock Knock” – a frightening allusion to the often late-night visits by heavily armed, black-clad kidnappers from secret services or the police to suspected government opponents.

Tun Tun’s targets included activists, journalists and prominent opposition politicians – but most of those arrested appear to be residents of working-class neighborhoods who rose up en masse against Maduro for the first time in the two days after his controversial election victory.

A Tun Tun propaganda video posted last week on the Instagram account of the military counterintelligence agency DGCIM shows one of Machado’s campaign organizers, María Oropeza, being arrested to the sounds of the children’s song from the 1984 horror film “Nightmare on Elm Street,” in which Freddy Krueger attacks children in their dreams. “One, two, Freddy’s coming to get you! Three, four, you better lock your door!” warns the song’s sinister lyrics.

A second DGCIM video, showing another arrest, is accompanied by a horror film adaptation of Carol of the Bells, whose modified text warns: “If you have done wrong, he will come! … He will look for you! You better hide!”

When asked if she feared that she and González would soon receive a visit from Maduro’s security forces, Machado replied: “Right now … everyone in Venezuela is afraid that someone will knock on their door and take away their freedom – even their life is threatened. Maduro has launched a campaign of terror against Venezuelans.”

“Every single democratic government should raise its voice much louder,” said Machado, who believes the repression exposed “the criminal nature” of a regime that knew it had lost heavily to González and was now desperately trying to hold on to power. “(Maduro’s government has) decided that its only way to hold on to power is to use violence, fear and terror against the population.”

Human rights and democracy activists say the speed and scale of the repression is virtually unprecedented in the region’s recent history. Maduro claims he is pursuing criminals and terrorists behind a fascist, foreign-backed plot to overthrow him.

“In Latin America, there has not been a policy of repression like that in Venezuela since the days of (Chilean dictator) Augusto Pinochet,” Marino Alvarado, an activist with the Venezuelan human rights group Provea, told El País last week.

Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, president of the Latin America advocacy group’s Washington office, told the New York Times: “I have been documenting human rights abuses in Venezuela for many years and have seen patterns of repression before. I don’t think I have ever seen such cruelty.”

Tamara Taraciuk Broner, The director of the rule of law program at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, said the arbitrary arrests – and a crackdown on social media that temporarily blocked X and Signal – suggested Maduro was taking Venezuela in an even more despotic direction. “It looks like they want to establish a full-blown dictatorship,” she said. “You have to be very brave to take to the streets in Venezuela right now… they are trying very hard to intimidate people so they don’t take to the streets.”

The government’s attempt to create an atmosphere of fear was clearly visible last Saturday, when thousands of opposition supporters gathered in Caracas to hear Machado speak despite the threat of arrest.

Unlike other opposition protest marches in recent years, many protesters did not give their names to journalists for fear of persecution, and some wore masks. After the march, at least one reporter was detained by security officials and accused of “incitement to hatred.” Machado came in disguise, wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up.

“Before I came out today, my daughter threw herself on me and made me promise I would come home,” said a 28-year-old protester, describing how her best friend was captured hours earlier.

Significantly, the next major mobilizations against Maduro will take place mostly outside Venezuela, which is home to about 8 million of the estimated 29 million people who have fled abroad to escape economic chaos and political repression. Machado has called on his supporters to gather around the world on Saturday, August 17, to hold “a major global protest… for the truth.”

Machado called on Maduro – who has been in power since being elected following the death of his mentor Hugo Chávez in 2013 – to “accept his defeat and understand that we are offering reasonable conditions for a negotiated transition.” These conditions include “guarantees, safe passage and incentives.”

Maduro has publicly rejected talk of negotiations, but some believe one option for him could be exile in an allied country such as Cuba, Turkey or Iran. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino offered him temporary asylum en route last week, but Maduro quickly rejected his offer.

Machado promised not to seek “revenge” or persecute members of the Maduro government, although her campaign promises to “bury socialism forever” and her previous calls for foreign military intervention have raised many concerns. Chavistas He harbored deep distrust of the right-wing politician.

Machado was aware that left-wing politicians in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico – who have not recognized Maduro’s claim to victory – could play an important role in getting him to engage in “serious negotiations for a democratic transition.”

“But we must end repression and increase the cost of repression. These are red lines that the Maduro regime is crossing at this moment,” Machado added.