Venezuelan opposition politician under house arrest after kidnap, son says

Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa has returned home after being captured by security forces on Sunday - but is under house arrest, his son has said.

Ramón Guanipa said while his family was "relieved", his father remained "unjustly imprisoned".

The country's opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Sunday that Guanipa had been taken in the capital Caracas by "heavily armed men". It came hours after Guanipa and other political prisoners were released.

Venezuela's Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello later said "a person" was rearrested "for violating the conditions under which he was released".

"Some politicians believed they could do whatever they wanted," Cabello said on Monday.

A former vice-president of the National Assembly, Guanipa spent eight months in prison and is among several political prisoners to have been freed since the US seized Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro in January.

In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Ramón said his father, leader of the Justice First party, had initially been released from prison at about 11:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Sunday.

He said his father then spent time with families waiting for the release of other political prisoners.

"He made some statements, he mobilised a lot of people," Ramón said, continuing: "He went on an interview... and after that he was kidnapped by security forces that weren't wearing uniform, that weren't identified properly."

During the BBC interview, Guanipa's son said he had been informed that his father would be returned and placed under house arrest. But he said no further information was shared about when his father would be transported.

Later on Tuesday, Ramón posted on his father's X account, saying: "I confirm that my father, Juan Pablo Guanipa, is at our home in Maracaibo. We are relieved to know that our family will soon be together."

He added: "My father remains unjustly imprisoned, because house arrest is still imprisonment, and we demand his full freedom, as well as the freedom of all political prisoners."

Ramón thanked the US government, including President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for "their efforts in support of freedom in Venezuela and for all political prisoners".

Guanipa's centre-right party had previously said the 61-year-old was kidnapped by the "repressive forces of the dictatorship" while he was moving between locations.

It added that those accompanying him warned that weapons were pointed at the group before Guanipa was loaded into a car.

"We hold Delcy Rodríguez, Jorge Rodríguez, and Diosdado Cabello responsible for any harm to Juan Pablo's life," Justice First wrote on social media, referring to Venezuela's interim president, the National Assembly speaker, and the interior minister respectively.

The party also called on the international community to demand Guanipa's "immediate release", as well as an end to the Venezuelan government's "persecution of the opposition".

When Guanipa was recaptured on Sunday, Ramón and a key figure in Venezuela's opposition, Edmundo González, had demanded proof of life.

Guanipa, a political ally of Machado, was among at least 30 people freed on Sunday, according to Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal, which provides assistance to political prisoners in the country.

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

He then went into hiding after being accused of terrorism and treason for challenging the 2024 election result.

Guanipa was later tracked down by Venezuela's security forces and detained in May 2025.

Opposition and human rights groups say the government under Maduro had for years used detentions of political prisoners to stamp out dissent and silence critics.

Many were detained after the 2024 presidential election, when Maduro claimed victory despite opponents and many countries disputing the results.

The Venezuelan government has denied holding political prisoners, insisting they were arrested for criminal activity.