Machado says shut ally was kidnapped hours after launch from jail | EUROtoday

Venezuelan opposition chief María Corina Machado claims {that a} shut ally has been kidnapped, simply hours after he was launched from jail.

The authorities launched a number of outstanding opposition members on Sunday.

Machado mentioned on social media that Juan Pablo Guanipa was kidnapped round midnight in a residential neighborhood of the capital, Caracas.

“Heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived in four vehicles and violently took him away,” she posted on X.

“We demand his immediate release.”

Guanipa and others have been launched following rising strain on appearing President Delcy Rodríguez to free these whose detention is linked to their political actions.

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It additionally comes after representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited Venezuela.

The authorities’s press workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark early Monday.

Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s appearing president after the January 3 seize of then-President Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. army. Her authorities started releasing prisoners days later.

Some of these freed Sunday joined households ready outdoors prisons for his or her family members to be launched. They chanted “We are not afraid! We are not afraid!” and marched a brief distance.

“I am convinced that our country has completely changed,” Guanipa, a former governor, had advised reporters hours after his launch.

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

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Guanipa had spent greater than eight months in custody.

Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the discharge of at the least 30 individuals Sunday.

In addition to Guanipa, Machado’s political group mentioned a number of of its members have been among the many launched, together with María Oropeza, who livestreamed her arrest by army intelligence officers as they broke into her residence with a crowbar.

Machado’s lawyer, Perkins Rocha, was additionally freed.

Alfredo Romero, president of Foro Penal, expressed critical concern over Guanipa’s disappearance.

“So far, we have no clear information about who took him,” he mentioned on X.

“We hope he will be released immediately.”