A group of armed men taking orders from Venezuela's self-declared President Juan Guaido on Tuesday freed prominent opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez after five years in detention in what looks to be a significant triumph for the movement against the embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Lopez was arrested in 2014 and later sentenced to 13 years and nine months for inciting violence during a period of anti-government protests back in a judicial process condemned by international human rights groups. He had been under house arrest since 2017.