Prosecutors in Venezuela say they will charge opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for alleged involvement in a plot to murder President Nicolas Maduro.  Machado was one of the leaders of the three months of protests against Venezuela’s democratically elected government earlier this year.

Machado will be formally charged on 3 December, according to prosecutors.  She denies any wrongdoing and said on social media that the charges are an attempt to silence her and others who want Maduro to step down amid a grueling economic crisis.  She had been barred from leaving Venezuela in June, and before that was kicked out of congress for a diplomatic snub at a March meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The details of the alleged plot are not yet public.  In May, prosecutors revealed a series of emails they say showed Machado was plotting with the United States – specifically, US Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker – on funding for and instructions on toppling the Maduro government. 

Machado is also a signatory to the Carmona Decree, a blueprint of the failed 2002 coup attempt against then-President Hugo Chavez.