In Venezuela, the prominent opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa is said to have been kidnapped a few hours after his release from prison.Image: keystone
02/09/2026, 08:1902/09/2026, 08:19
In Venezuela, the prominent opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa is said to have been kidnapped a few hours after his release from prison. Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who received the Nobel Peace Prize at the end of last year, announced this on Platform X. “A few minutes ago, Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped in the Los Chorros settlement in Caracas,” she wrote.
Heavily armed men in civilian clothes came in four vehicles and took him away by force. “We demand his immediate release,” said Machado. The Venezuelan public prosecutor’s office, for its part, said it had requested Guanipa’s arrest because he had violated conditions. Further details were initially not known.
Guanipa, the leader of the Primero Justicia party, was arrested in May 2025. The government of the authoritarian head of state Nicolás Maduro, who was still in office at the time, accused him of planning terrorist attacks to disrupt parliamentary and regional elections.
According to the human rights organization Foro Penal, there are around 800 political prisoners in the South American country. Many were arrested during the protests against Maduro’s 2024 re-election, which was overshadowed by allegations of fraud.
A few days after the US intervention and Maduro’s arrest in early January, the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced the release of a large number of Venezuelan and foreign prisoners. (sda/dpa)