The son of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, Ramón Guanipa, has denounced the “kidnapping” of his father just a few hours after his release. The political party of the former politician, Primero Justicia, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, a close ally of Guanipa, . “We report that a group of armed people have intercepted and kidnapped Juan Pablo Guanipa minutes ago. It was a group of approximately 10 unidentified people. We managed to identify a silver Corolla, a white Range Rover and a Renault Simbol,” his son said at midnight (Venezuelan local time) on the opposition leader’s own X account.
The ambush once again put an end to his freedom after spending more than eight months in prison. The Venezuelan Public Ministry reported during the early hours of the morning that it requested a court to revoke the precautionary measure that benefited Juan Pablo Guanipa, considering that he failed to comply with the conditions imposed by justice. The Prosecutor’s Office asked the court to evaluate the transition to a regime of house detention, with the argument of safeguarding the criminal process.
Guanipa took advantage of his first hours of freedom to turn them into a street event and a celebration that included a caravan of motorcycles that marched towards El Helicoide, the feared prison in Caracas. The leader also published several memes on his
Guanipa’s initiative bothered the ruling party. “Democracy is built with dialogue,” Indira Urbaneja, one of the members of the Presidential Commission for Coexistence and Peace, reproached him in X. “One thing is dissent, and another is showthe provocation,” he continued in another tweet. “They didn’t learn. The months of confinement have not made them channel their political struggle towards a more organic and effective way,” Urbaneja, one of the people who are currently debating the amnesty law, reproached in another publication. “Debauchery or disrespect for institutions cannot be allowed.”
“We hold responsible [la presidenta encargada] Delcy Rodríguez, [el presidente de la Asamblea Nacional] Jorge Rodríguez and [el ministro de Interior] Diosdado Cabello of any harm against the life of Juan Pablo”, the Primero Venezuela party has denounced in X, for which “heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, [que] They arrived in 4 vehicles, and violently took him away.” “We demand his immediate release,” he added.
The complaint came just a few hours after, celebrating that he was “free, after a year and a half, ten months in hiding, almost nine months” in detention. The former governor of Zulia Juan Pablo Guanipa is a leader of the Primero Justicia party and a close ally of Machado. He was arrested on May 23, 2025, two days before the regional and parliamentary elections, and was accused of terrorism, treason and criminal association.
Several of Machado’s main allies left prison this Sunday and led caravans of motorcycles and cars in Caracas to ask for the freedom of Venezuela and all political prisoners, just one month after the announcement of releases by the Government of the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.
The opponents also came out in the middle of the consultation process that Parliament is carrying out with sectors of civil society to approve in the coming days an amnesty law that was proposed by the president in charge. During the day on Sunday, at least 35 people were released from prison, as verified by the NGO Foro Penal, which leads the defense of political prisoners, including Guanipa.
The releases, however, as it later became known, were conditional on restrictive measures such as house arrest or electronic anklets.
The list of those released included Perkins Rocha, legal advisor of the Comando Con Venezuela – the organizational team of Machado and opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia – although with “very strict” precautionary measures, said the lawyer’s wife, María Constanza Cipriani. Among the released members of Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, are its world coordinator, Luis Tarbay; the Secretary of National Policy, Dignora Hernández; the coordinator of Citizen Associations, Catalina Ramos, and the national coordinator of Organization, Henry Alviarez.
