Jorge Ramos briefly detained by Maduro regime

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Univision anchor Jorge Ramos and five network employees were briefly detained within the Venezuelan presidential palace on Monday, following an interview with the country's embattled president Nicolas Maduro.

The detention lasted for more than two hours, and they were released with their footage and equipment confiscated.

Ramos, one of the most famous Spanish-speaking journalists in the world, was in Venezuela to interview the president when he and his crew were apprehended following a line of questioning Maduro did not agree with, Univision's president of news Daniel Coronell said in a tweet.

"He didn't like the things we were asking him about, the lack of democracy in Venezuela, the torture and the political prisoners," Ramos told a Univision broadcast following his release, the New York Times cited.

Kimberly Breier, assistant secretary of the State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, was one of the first people notified of the journalists' detention, and she demanded their immediate release, warning the Maduro regime in a tweet "the world is watching.

Following their release, Breier said the detention and confiscation of their equipment and material "by Maduro's henchmen are the latest reminder that press freedom in Venezuela applies only to those who are willing to spread the regime's lies."

Maduro has been accused of detaining journalists in the past, most recently last month when two French journalists were detained while filming outside the presidential palace. He has also been accused of harassing and detailing several local journalists in the past few years, the Guardian reported.

The detention comes as the Venezuelan president has been under increasing international pressure to surrender power of the country to opposition leader Juan Guaido - an abdication that Maduro has said would be the result of a manufactured crisis at the hands of the U.S. military.

"They are trying to fabricate a crisis to justify political escalation and a military intervention in Venezuela to bring a war to South America," Maduro said Monday on ABC News.

The same day as the detention, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was in Colombia to announce new sanctions that target Venezuelan governors who back Maduro and prevented humanitarian aid from entering the country.