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Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Sunday that close ally Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped in Caracas around midnight, just hours after his release from prison.
“Heavily armed men dressed in civilian clothes arrived in four vehicles and took him away by force,” she said in a post on X.
Guanipa, an opposition politician, had been arrested in May after months in hiding after being accused of leading a terrorist plot.
Venezuelan political leader Juan Pablo Guanipa gestures after their release outside Zona 7 prison in Caracas on Feb. 8, 2026. AFP via Getty ImagesGuanipa’s son, Ramon Guanipa, in a video on social media, said the incident occurred just before midnight local time, describing it as an ambush in which his father was taken by 10 heavily armed, unidentified men.
“My father has again been kidnapped,” he said.
Just hours before, the elder Guanipa had posted several videos to social media after his release from jail in which he spoke to a crowd of journalists and supporters, urging the release of other political prisoners and calling the current administration illegitimate.
The US captured and deposed long-time leader Nicolas Maduro last month, leaving his vice president Delcy Rodriguez to take over as interim president.
Venezuela’s opposition and human rights groups have said for years that the country’s socialist government uses detentions to stamp out dissent.
Former Deputy of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Juan Pablo Guanipa (R), gestures next to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado during a protest called by the opposition on the eve of the presidential inauguration in Caracas on Jan. 9, 2025. AFP via Getty ImagesVenezuela’s government did not immediately reply to a request for comment about Guanipa’s disappearance following his release.
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