Prominent Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa has been abducted by an armed group just hours after being released from prison. According to his family members and political allies, around ten armed men in plain clothes detained him on Sunday night in the Los Chorros area of Caracas.
The 61-year-old Guanipa had been arrested in May last year on charges of allegedly being involved in a terrorist plot and was released from prison only on Sunday evening. Shortly after his release, he shared a video message on social media, vowing to continue fighting alongside truth for the future of Venezuela. However, before any celebrations could take place, unidentified individuals arrived in four vehicles, surrounded the car he was traveling in, and forcibly took him away.
Guanipa’s son, Ramon, said that agents without identification ambushed his father at gunpoint. He has demanded that the authorities disclose his father’s whereabouts and provide proof that he is alive.
Guanipa’s party, Primero Justicia, has accused the current authorities of being behind the abduction. The party has held interim President Delcy Rodríguez, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello responsible for Guanipa’s safety.
Following the arrest of former strongman Nicolás Maduro by U.S. special forces, Venezuela is currently being run by an interim government led by Rodríguez. Guanipa was released as part of a process to free political prisoners under pressure from the U.S. administration.
Nobel laureate and opposition leader María Corina Machado has expressed serious concern over the incident.
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