María Corina Machado reported the kidnapping through social media, demanding Guanipa’s immediate release.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped in Caracas by “heavily armed men” shortly after being released from prison on Sunday, said opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado.
“A few minutes ago, Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped in the Los Chorros neighborhood, in Caracas. Heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in four vehicles and took him by force. We demand his immediate release,” wrote Machado on the social network.
The opponent’s son, Ramon Guanipa, also stated that his father was kidnapped “by around ten unidentified people”.
Guanipa’s party, Primero Justicia, also denounced the leader’s kidnapping “by the repressive forces of the dictatorship”.
A few hours earlier, Guanipa, a 61-year-old former vice president of Parliament, had been released from prison, two days before the announced vote on a historic amnesty law in Venezuela.
“Hiding for ten months, detained here for almost nine months” in Caracas, Guanipa commented in a video posted on the social network X, in which he displayed what appeared to be a release order.
The opponent’s last public appearance before the video dates back to January 9, 2025, when he accompanied Maria Corina Machado in a protest demonstration against Nicolás Maduro’s investiture for a third consecutive term.
Arrested in May 2025 on electoral conspiracy charges, Guanipa was later indicted for terrorism, money laundering and incitement to violence and hatred.
Freddy Superlano, a Venezuelan opposition leader known for winning the post of governor of Barinas state, the birthplace of former president Hugo Chávez, and Perkins Rocha, Machado’s legal advisor, were also released by authorities on Sunday.
Freddy Superlano, 49 years old, and Perkins Rocha, 63 years old, had been detained for a year and a half, following the contested re-election of President Nicolás Maduro on July 28, 2024.
Since then, families and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have denounced the fact that this promise from the interim Venezuelan government is being gradually fulfilled.
A NGO Foro Penal registered at least 35 new releases last Sunday. According to the organization, around 400 people detained for political reasons have been released since January 8th.
On Friday, the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodriguez, promised that the amnesty law will be definitively approved this Tuesday and that political prisoners “will all be out” by February 13.
“We will correct all the mistakes that may have been made”, guaranteed Rodriguez, brother of the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez.
