Venezuelan opposition politician ‘under house arrest’ after release from jail

Juan Pablo Guanipa, a close political ally of Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, has been placed under house arrest, his family said on Tuesday, two days after he was released from prison.

Mr Guanipa, a former governor for the opposition, is at home in the northwest city of Maracaibo, his son, Ramon Guanipa, posted on X.

“My father remains unjustly imprisoned – because house arrest is still imprisonment – and we demand his immediate and full freedom, as well as the freedom of all political prisoners,” he wrote.

The government had released Mr Guanipa along with several other prominent opposition members on Sunday following lengthy politically motivated detentions. But he was rearrested hours later following his participation in demonstrations outside detention centres.

Ramon Guanipa told reporters that a group of armed men in three vehicles intercepted his father and others travelling on Sunday in a neighbourhood in the capital, Caracas.

He said his father did not violate the two conditions of his release -monthly check-ins with a court and no travel outside Venezuela – and showed reporters the court document listing them.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab’s office on Monday posted on social media that it had “requested the competent court to revoke the precautionary measure granted to Juan Pablo Guanipa, due to his non-compliance with the conditions imposed by the aforementioned court”.

It did not explain what conditions Mr Guanipa violated during the roughly 12 hours he was free.

The rearrest of Mr Guanipa marks the latest twist in the political turmoil in Venezuela in the wake of the US military’s seizure on January 3 of then president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a compound in Caracas.

The couple were taken to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

The government of Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez began releasing prisoners days after she was sworn in and has faced mounting pressure to free hundreds more whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political activities.

Sunday’s releases followed a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the release of at least 30 people on Sunday.

Some of those freed on Sunday, including Mr Guanipa, joined families waiting outside detention facilities for their loved ones. They chanted “We are not afraid! We are not afraid!” and marched a short distance.

“I am convinced that our country has completely changed,” Mr Guanipa told reporters after his release.

“I am convinced that it is now up to all of us to focus on building a free and democratic country.”

He had spent more than eight months in custody at a facility in Caracas.

Several members of Ms Machado’s political organisation were among those released on Sunday, including local organiser Maria Oropeza, who in 2024 livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar.

“They are terrified that Venezuelan society will mobilise and express its voice civically,” Ms Machado told reporters in Washington on Monday, referring to Ms Rodriguez’s government.

“But let me tell you something, there’s no going back.”