Key Venezuelan opposition figure Guanipa ‘kidnapped’ by heavily armed men after being freed from prison, allies say

By Diego Mendoza, Ruben Correa, Gonzalo Zegarra, Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, CNN

(CNN) — Key Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped by heavily armed assailants on Sunday night, shortly after he was released from prison, according to his family and multiple political allies.

Leader of the conservative Primero Justicia party, Guanipa was among several high-profile political prisoners freed on Sunday, in the latest effort from Caracas to satisfy US demands following Washington’s ouster of strongman leader Nicolás Maduro.

But Guanipa, 61, was later snatched by a group of men in the Los Chorros neighborhood of Caracas, said Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Laureate María Corina Machado, who is not in the country.

“Heavily armed men dressed in civilian clothes arrived in four vehicles and took him away by force,” she said on X.

Guanipa’s son Ramón said in a video that his father was “ambushed” at a late night event “by approximately 10 agents who had no identification whatsoever.”

“They pointed their guns at them, they were heavily armed, and they took my father,” he said, before demanding to see proof his father was still alive.

Guanipa’s Primero Justicia party also accused the Caracas regime of being behind the kidnapping. “We hold (interim President) Delcy Rodríguez, (National Assembly President) Jorge Rodríguez, and (Interior Minister) Diosdado Cabello responsible for any harm against the life of Juan Pablo,” it said in a statement on X.

After Maduro was captured by US special forces last month, his former deputy Rodríguez took over as leader with the blessing of the Trump administration, on the proviso Caracas complied with a raft of US demands – from access to oil to the release of political prisoners.

Guanipa was freed earlier Sunday night after more than eight months in prison.

Shortly after walking out of a detention center in Caracas, Guanipa had uploaded a video on social media, declaring, “Today we are being released. Much to discuss about the present and future of Venezuela, always with the truth at the forefront.”

Guanipa was arrested in May 2025, following claims by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, made without evidence, that he was involved in an alleged “terror” plot against regional and legislative elections. Guanipa has repeatedly denied the accusation.

Machado had celebrated the news of his release earlier Sunday. “My dear Juan Pablo, counting down the minutes until I can hug you! You are a hero and history will always recognize it,” she wrote on social media.

Another of Machado’s allies, lawyer Perkins Rocha, was also released on Sunday, but under strict restrictions, according to his wife María Constanza.

Human rights group Foro Penal said it had confirmed that at least 30 political prisoners were released on Sunday, according to the group’s director, Alfredo Romero.

Others who were freed include Luis Somaza, a member of the Popular Will party, and Jesús Armas, an activist and former opposition councilman.

Venezuela’s opposition and human rights groups have long accused the country’s authoritarian regime of using arbitrary arrests to suppress dissent. Foro Penal estimates that hundreds of additional political prisoners still remain behind bars.

The government has denied that it holds people for political reasons, arguing that those in prison have committed crimes.

Sunday’s releases come days after Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez promised relatives of political prisoners that “all detainees” would be freed. Rodríguez, the brother of acting president Delcy Rodríguez, said the process would be completed “no later than” Friday, February 13.

His announcement comes as the acting socialist government moves forward with an amnesty bill that could lead to the mass release of prisoners – some of whom have been held since 1999, when strongman leader Hugo Chávez came to power – as a first step toward what officials describe as national reconciliation.

Although the government announced the release of “a significant number of people” days after the US captured Maduro, rights groups and family members believe that the pace of releases has been slow.

So far, more than 380 people have been freed from prison, according to Foro Penal, while the government claims to have released more than 800.

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CNN’s Michael Rios, contributed to this report.