The son of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, Ramón, described how the kidnapping occurred and assured that a group of armed men without identification intercepted the vehicle in which his father was and forced him to get out.
“People without identification got out, carrying long weapons, with a very aggressive attitude. They hit the car. There were some who entered the house again, they began to hit the house too. And in the middle of that tumult my father decided to get out. Seeing as they were not going to go anywhere and they were in that attitude. So, when he got out, they immediately grabbed him and put him in one of the vehicles and left. They did not take any of the other people who were there,”He recounted in an interview with the Guarimba Digital media.
According to his testimony, the leader did not resist at that time.”Yes, exactly. I mean, everyone who was there was being targeted. And the attitude was… Well, one of the boys told me: ‘We really thought they were going to kill us.’ Because when they are officials the attitude is different, it’s more protocol. But this was a kidnapping as if the mafia were taking you away,” he stated.
When asked if the men were hooded, he indicated that they were not.”No, they say they were not hooded. They only had bulletproof vests and weapons. They were in private, they did not have a uniform. In fact, the cars apparently had license plates too, but they could not see the license plate.”
He also noted that since that moment there was no official information about his whereabouts.”No. The only thing that has come out is the statement from the Public Ministry saying that they are revoking the measures that had been granted to him because apparently he failed to comply with some measure. However, I have the release ticket here and the only thing it says is that it has a thirty-day presentation regime and a prohibition on leaving the country.”
In this context, he questioned the arguments regarding the alleged non-compliance with judicial conditions.”It doesn’t say anywhere that you can’t testify, that you can’t speak, that you can’t just ride around the detention centers on a motorcycle. What is the crime?” he said.
The opposition leader had been released by the Chavista regime on Sunday afternoon, after being detained for more than eight months for political reasons.
“Here we are, being released after a year and a half, ten months in hiding, almost nine months detained here. Today we are being released. A lot to talk about the present and the future of Venezuela. Always with the truth ahead,” Guanipa said in a video published on his social networks after being released.
Guanipa, former deputy and former vice president of the National Assembly, had been arrested on May 23, 2025 within the framework of a wave of arrests against allies of María Corina Machado.At the time, the announcement was made by the regime’s Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, who presented him as one of the alleged “heads” of a “terrorist network” that, according to the regime, planned to “sabotage” the elections.
