CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Machado on Monday said one of her closest allies was kidnapped hours after being released from prison.
By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press
The government had released several prominent opposition members from prison Sunday after lengthy politically motivated detentions. Venezuelan opposition leader Machado said on social media that Juan Pablo Guanipa was taken around midnight in a residential neighborhood of the capital, Caracas.
“Heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in four vehicles and violently took him away,” she posted on X. “We demand his immediate release.”
The releases of the opposition figures came as the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez has faced mounting pressure to free hundreds of people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political activities. The releases also followed a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The government’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Monday.
Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president after the Jan. 3 capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. military. Her government began releasing prisoners days later.
Some of those freed Sunday joined families waiting outside prisons for their loved ones to be released. They chanted “We are not afraid! We are not afraid!” and marched a short distance.
“I am convinced that our country has completely changed,” Guanipa, a former governor, had told reporters hours after his release. “I am convinced that it is now up to all of us to focus on building a free and democratic country.”
Guanipa had spent more than eight months in custody.
No information on Guanipa’s kidnappers
Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the release of at least 30 people Sunday.
In addition to Guanipa, Machado’s political organization said several of its members were among the released, including María Oropeza, who livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar. Machado’s attorney, Perkins Rocha, was also freed.
Alfredo Romero, president of Foro Penal, expressed serious concern over Guanipa’s disappearance.
“So far, we have no clear information about who took him,” he said on X. “We hope he will be released immediately.”
Guanipa’s son, Ramón, said on social media that his father was “intercepted and kidnapped” by “a group of approximately 10 unidentified people.” He also described three vehicles involved in the situation.
“We demand proof of life immediately and his release,” Ramón Guanipa wrote on X.
Guanipa was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” plotting to boycott that month’s legislative election. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation, and said the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.
“Thinking differently cannot be criminalized in Venezuela, and today, Juan Pablo Guanipa is a prisoner of conscience of this regime,” Tomás Guanipa said after the arrest.
Mass prisoner release announced
Rodríguez’s government announced Jan. 8 it would free a significant number of prisoners — a central demand of the country’s opposition and human rights organizations with backing from the United States — but families and rights watchdogs have criticized authorities for the slow pace of the releases.
The ruling party-controlled National Assembly last week began debating an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners. The opposition and nongovernmental organizations have reacted with cautious optimism as well as with suggestions and demands for more information on the contents of the proposal.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on Friday posted a video on Instagram showing him outside a detention center in Caracas and saying that “everyone” would be released no later than next week, once the amnesty bill is approved.
Delcy Rodríguez and Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke by phone in late January. His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, in a statement said he sent a team to the country and “offered our support to help Venezuela work on a roadmap for dialogue and reconciliation” in which human rights should be centered.
