Juan Pablo Guanipa was ‘violently’ taken from a residential neighbourhood in Caracas, according to opposition leader María Corina Machado

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Monday one of her closest allies was kidnapped hours after being released from prison.

The government had released several prominent opposition members from prison on Sunday after lengthy politically motivated detentions.

Machado said on social media that Juan Pablo Guanipa was taken around midnight in a residential neighbourhood 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.”