Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado stated that her colleague Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped just hours after his release from detention.

The Nobel Peace Prize recipient reported on Sunday that Guanipa, who leads the Justice First party, was taken in the Los Chorros neighborhood of Caracas.

Heavily armed men in civilian clothes arrived in four vehicles and took him away by force, she wrote on social media early Monday.

Former vice-president of the National Assembly, Guanipa had spent eight months in prison and was among several political prisoners released since the U.S. seized Venezuela's then-President Nicolas Maduro in January.

The Justice First party condemned the incident, claiming Guanipa was kidnapped by the repressive forces of the dictatorship while he was transitioning between locations.

Witnesses accompanying him reported that weapons were pointed at them before Guanipa was loaded into a car.

The party held Delcy Rodríguez, Jorge Rodríguez, and Diosdado Cabello accountable for any harm that may come to Guanipa, regarding them as key individuals in the Venezuelan government.

They also called upon the international community to demand Guanipa's immediate release and to end the persecution of opposition members in Venezuela.

Earlier in the day, Guanipa's son Ramón had expressed hope and joy on social media, stating: Our entire family will be able to hug again soon.

Guanipa was among at least 30 individuals released, as reported by Foro Penal, a group that supports political prisoners in Venezuela.

He was elected governor of the Zulia region in 2017 but was barred from taking office after refusing to swear an oath before Maduro's National Constituent Assembly.

Following accusations of terrorism and treason for disputing the 2024 election result, Guanipa had gone into hiding, eventually being located by security forces and detained in May 2025.

Opposition and human rights organizations have claimed for years that Maduro's government has used the detention of political prisoners to suppress dissent and silence critics.