Feb 10 (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa is under house arrest in the city of Maracaibo, his son Ramon Guanipa said on Tuesday, shortly after the close ally of Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado was freed from jail and recaptured.
“I confirm my father, Juan Pablo Guanipa, is in my house in Maracaibo,” his son said in a post on X. “We are relieved to know my family will be reunited soon.”
“My father is still unjustly imprisoned,” he added, “because house arrest is still prison and we demand his full freedom and that of all the political prisoners.”
Guanipa’s recent release and recapture, amid U.S. pressure after the Trump administration captured President Nicolas Maduro in an attack on Caracas, cast uncertainty over the government’s pledges to pass an amnesty law and free political prisoners.
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. Venezuela’s opposition and human rights groups have said for years that the government uses detentions to stamp out dissent.
Guanipa was released from detention on Sunday, amid a series of prisoner releases in the country, but then rearrested several hours later after speaking to media in Caracas and seeing supporters.
Ramon Guanipa said his father had been forcibly re-taken by unidentified men who put a t-shirt on his head and did not let him lift his head from the floor of the van where he was transported.
Guanipa was imprisoned for more than eight months on accusations of leading a terrorist plot, which he has denied. Before that he lived in hiding, after the 2024 presidential vote which the opposition says it won, though Maduro claimed victory.
(Reporting by Reuters staff, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon)
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