One of Venezuela’s opposition leaders, Juan Pablo Guanipa, was kidnapped just hours after being released on Sunday afternoon along with other politicians on orders of the Chavista regime.
The opponent’s son, Ramón Guanipa, indicated that a group of “approximately 10 unidentified people” intercepted and “kidnapped” his father. The winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, María Corina Machado, also denounced in the early hours of this Monday (9) that “heavily armed men” took Guanipa, who had been released from prison hours earlier, after having been detained since May 2025.
“Heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in four vehicles and violently took him away. We demand his immediate release,” wrote Machado on his account on the social network X.
In a statement, the Venezuelan Public Ministry said it had revoked the release of opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, adding that he will be transferred to a regime of “house arrest.” According to the prosecutor’s office, a court requested the revocation of the “precautionary measure (release) granted to citizen Juan Pablo Guanipa” because, allegedly, “the conditions were not complied with” imposed by the judicial authorities.
The Primero Justicia party, of which the opponent is a member, stated that the regime detained him “while he was moving”, while at the same time holding the interim dictator, Delcy Rodríguez, the President of Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, and the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, responsible for the measure.
Guanipa was released on Sunday afternoon along with a group of opponents close to Machado, after Chavismo found itself under pressure from the USA with the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
