Spanish
Caracas.- The opposition leader of Venezuela and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, María Corina Machado, denounced at midnight on Sunday that «heavily armed men» took the leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, who had been released from prison hours earlier after being detained since May 2025.
"Heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in 4 vehicles, and violently took him away. We demand his immediate release," Machado stated on his X account. For his part, the son of the opposition figure Ramón Guanipa indicated that a group of "approximately 10 unidentified people" intercepted and "kidnapped" his father.
The Ambush of Juan Pablo Guanipa
"We managed to identify a silver Corolla, a white Range Rover and a Renault Symbol. We demand proof of life immediately and their release," Ramón Guanipa posted on the former deputy's social media.You may be interested in: Almost 400 political prisoners have been released in Venezuela, according to opposition coalition
In a video, he detailed that his father was in an activity at 11:45 local time (03:45 GMT), without specifying where, when he was ambushed by "approximately 10 officials who did not have any kind of identification." Guanipa remained in hiding when he was arrested in May 2025, in a police operation to dismantle an alleged plan that aimed to "sabotage" the regional and legislative elections of that month and carry out alleged "terrorist acts", for which more than 70 people were also arrested, including foreigners, according to the Government.
