CARACAS, Venezuela — A crowd of anti-government activists wrested free an opposition politician as he was being hauled away in handcuffs by security forces following a raid on the party headquarters of President Nicolas Maduro’s biggest foe.

Dario Ramirez, a city councilman, shouted “I’m an elected official” as national guardsmen, surrounded by journalists and party activists, frantically looked for an escape route from the Caracas shopping mall where they took him into custody. Once outside, dozens of activists banging pots and pans in protest attacked the squad, freeing Ramirez by force and speeding him away on a motorcycle.

The dramatic scene underscored the rising tensions that could spill over into violence Tuesday when pro- and anti-government activists hold dueling demonstrations in the capital.

Ramirez belongs to the Popular Will party led by Leopoldo Lopez, the target of a police manhunt accused by Maduro of inciting violence and leading a U.S.-backed conspiracy to oust him from power.

Maduro’s government on Monday gave three U.S. Embassy officials 48 hours to leave the country, charging that the Obama administration is siding with opposition protesters.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said the senior U.S. consular officers were trying to infiltrate Venezuelan universities, the hotbed of the recent unrest, under the cover of doing visa outreach.

The U.S. denied the charges, and is expressing concern about rising violence and the government’s attempts to block peaceful protests.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that Lopez’s arrest would have a “chilling effect” on Venezuelans’ right to free expression.

More than 1,000 students, who have spent the past week on the streets alternating between peaceful protests by day and battles with police at night, marched on Monday to Venezuela’s telecommunications regulator to demand it lift all restrictions on the news media’s coverage of the unfolding political crisis.

Police repelled the activists with tear gas and rubber bullets but there were no reports of serious injuries.

Several journalists have been harassed and detained in the past week. Colombia’s news channel NTN24 was taken off cable television while covering protests Wednesday that ended in a battle between student demonstrators and security forces backed by armed pro-government militias.