Feb 8 (Reuters) – Venezuelan authorities on Sunday said they were seeking court approval to put prominent opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa under house arrest, shortly after he was seized by armed men in Caracas in what his son called a kidnapping.
The incident came hours after Guanipa, a close ally of Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, was released from jail after being held more than eight months on accusations of leading a terrorist plot.
Venezuela’s Public Ministry said in a statement that Guanipa broke the terms of his release, but did not provide details. It did not address whether he had been re-arrested.
GOVERNMENT HAS PROMISED AMNESTY LAW
The incident casts uncertainty over government pledges to pass an amnesty law and free political prisoners, as U.S. pressure mounts a month after the Trump administration captured and deposed long-time leader Nicolas Maduro.
The politician’s son, Ramon Guanipa, and Machado, who won the Nobel for her efforts to unseat Maduro, both said he had been forcibly taken by unidentified men.
“Heavily armed men dressed in civilian clothes arrived in four vehicles and took him away by force,” Machado said in a post on X.
The younger Guanipa said in a social media video: “My father has again been kidnapped.”
Just hours before, Juan Pablo Guanipa had posted videos to social media in which he spoke to journalists and a crowd of cheering supporters. He urged the release of other political prisoners and called the current administration illegitimate.
Maduro’s re-election in 2024 was widely seen as rigged and a number of countries, including the U.S., do not recognize his government’s legitimacy.
HUNDREDS RELEASED SINCE JANUARY 8
Guanipa had said in an interview with a local online outlet that he spoke briefly with Machado after being released, and hoped to speak with her further the next day.
Venezuela’s opposition and human rights groups have said for years that the country’s socialist government uses detentions to stamp out dissent.
The government denies holding political prisoners and says those jailed have committed crimes. Officials say nearly 900 of these people have been released, but they have not been clear about the timeline and appear to be including releases from previous years. The government has not provided an official list of how many prisoners will be released or revealed their identities.
Rights group Foro Penal has said 383 political prisoners had been freed since the Venezuelan government announced on January 8 that it would begin a new series of releases. It counted another 35 releases on Sunday, including opposition politician Freddy Superlano and lawyer Perkins Rocha, also close allies of Machado.
The group’s director, Alfredo Romero, said on social media they did not yet have clear information about who took Guanipa.
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Sonali Paul, Lincoln Feast and Alex Richardson)
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