one of Venezuela The most prominent opposition politician, Juan Pablo Guanipa, was detained by security forces just hours after his release from prison, as the South American nation’s leaders sent mixed signals about their commitment to political reform. of Nicolás Maduro the fall
Guanipa, a close friend of the Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machadowas released Sunday from nearly nine months of detention — one of at least 35 political prisoners held during the day.
Guanypa’s first act as a free man was to ride through Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. In a convoy of motorbikes to attend a rally outside El Helicoid, the country’s most notorious political prison. Before Maduro’s capture turned Venezuelan politics upside down, scenes of political defiance would have been unthinkable until a few weeks ago.
“We are going to build a Venezuela of democracy, freedom, justice, pluralism and coexistence” The 61-year-old former governor told reporters Outside the detention center, he believes Venezuela has “completely changed.”
But Guanipa’s freedom was short-lived: just hours later he appeared to have been taken back into custody after being stopped by unidentified armed men.
“I want to inform the whole world that my father has been kidnapped once again,” his son Ramon announced in a social media video, adding that he was captured at 11.45pm on Sunday. “If anything happens to my father, I will hold the regime responsible,” the 29-year-old demanded proof of life.
“Heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in four vehicles and violently took him away,” Machado said in X. “We demand his immediate release.”
On Monday, Venezuela’s top prosecutor announced that his office had “requested the re-arrest of Guanipa because he did not comply with the rules.” [of his release]”.
It did not say what those conditions were but some freed political prisoners were barred from traveling outside the country or speaking to the press.
About 425 political prisoners have been released in Venezuela since Donald Trump’s controversial order, human rights activists say. Abduction of Maduro In the early hours of January 3.
Used by Maduro’s successor Delsy Rodriguez, a former vice president Her first major speech There was no mention of holding fresh presidential elections in Maduro’s absence, to herald a “new chapter” in the oil-rich nation.
The Rodriguez regime has moved to pass a new amnesty law designed to benefit victims of the Maduro dictatorship and some of those responsible for the repression.
Despite recent concessions, observers caution that they have yet to see any real indication that the regime is ready to dismantle the security forces and paramilitary groups that have propped up years of authoritarian rule.
Orlando Perez, a Latin America expert at the University of North Texas in Dallas, said Guanipa’s re-arrest indicated that “a push and pull” was being played out between different factions of Venezuela’s new leadership.
Perez believed that Rodriguez and her brother, the powerful National Assembly president, Jorge Rodriguez, were willing to make some concessions to speed up engagement with the United States and transition to a new form of government, even if it was only a “competition power”.
“But there are clearly forces that want to slow it down,” added Perez, fearing Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
“It’s an indication that we’re actually in a very slow process that could easily be reversed,” Perez said.
Guanipa was captured by “anti-subversion” agents in May last year and held in a Caracas prison on charges of terrorism, treason and conspiracy with a foreign government. After more than eight months behind bars, he saw his son only once. At the time, opposition politician Cabello celebrated, which many suspect was behind his re-arrest on Sunday.
Cabello told reporters Monday afternoon that Guanipa’s detention is a sign that Venezuelan justice is working.
“They thought they could do whatever they wanted and cause chaos,” he said, a clear reference to Guanipa’s comments outside El Helicoid.
Speaking in Washington, Machado called Guanipa’s arrest a “reaction” to the “tyranny” that continues to rule Venezuela despite Maduro’s departure.
“What is happening in Venezuela is proof that we are not only facing a criminal regime but also a regime that is afraid of the truth and terrorizing its citizens,” she told reporters.
At a press conference on Monday, Ramon Guanipa called for the immediate release of his father and those still behind bars. Hundreds of other political prisoners were also sought. “This has to end – and it has to end now,” he said.
