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Leading Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped by gunmen on Sunday evening, shortly after his release from prison, family members and numerous political allies said.
The leader of the conservative Primero Justicia party, Guanipa was among several high-profile political prisoners released on Sunday, in the latest attempt by Caracas to meet US demands following Washington's ouster of strongman leader Nicolás Maduro.
But Guanipa, 61, was later kidnapped by a group of people 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 her by force," she wrote on X.
Guanipa's son, Ramon, said in a video that his father was "ambushed" at an activity "by approximately 10 agents who had no identification documents."
"They pointed their guns at them, they were heavily armed and they took my father," he said, before demanding to see proof that 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 to Juan Pablo's life," it said in a statement to 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 condition that Caracas meet a series of US demands - from access to oil to the release of political prisoners.
Guanipa was released earlier Sunday evening after more than eight months in prison.
Shortly after leaving a detention center in Caracas, Guanipa uploaded a video to social media, declaring: "Today we are being released. There is much to discuss about the present and future of Venezuela, always with the truth at the forefront."
Guanipa was arrested in May 2025, following allegations by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello that he was involved in an alleged “terrorist” plot against regional and legislative elections. Guanipa has repeatedly denied the accusation.
The opposition and human rights groups in Venezuela have long accused the country's authoritarian regime of using arbitrary arrests to suppress dissent. Foro Penal estimates that hundreds of other political prisoners remain behind bars.
The government has denied that it is holding people for political reasons, arguing that those in prison have committed crimes.
Sunday's releases come days after the President of Venezuela's National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, promised relatives of political prisoners that "all prisoners" would be released. Rodríguez, the brother of acting President Delcy Rodríguez, said the process would be completed "no later than" Friday, February 13.
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