Venezuelan Interior Minister and long-suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello on Monday celebrated the abduction and rearrest of opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa hours after his release, claiming, “They thought they could do whatever they wanted.”
Guanipa, a close ally of anti-socialist opposition leader María Corina Machado, spent eight months unjustly detained as a political prisoner. He was released on Sunday and then abducted and rearrested hours later. His whereabouts remained unknown until his family confirmed on Tuesday that he has been placed under house arrest.
Cabello, a socialist strongman actively wanted by United States authorities on narco-terrorism charges and the person in charge of the Venezuelan socialist regime’s repressive forces, justified the measure on the grounds that Guanipa allegedly “violated” the terms of his release after being set free from prison on Sunday.
Cabello levied his accusations against the opposition politician while speaking to reporters in a weekly press conference of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
“Some politicians believed that they could do whatever they wanted and ruin the country by violating the very conditions under which they were being given freedom,” Cabello said.
Guanipa is a lawyer and former lawmaker from Maracaibo in the Venezuelan state of Zulia who spent ten months in hiding following the aftermath of the sham July 2024 presidential election, which now-deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed he “won.” Venezuelan law enforcement officials arrested Guanipa in May 2025 and charged him with dubious “terrorism” charges.
In 2017, Guanipa was elected governor of Zulia but was stripped of his democratically elected position by Maduro days after winning the election in response to Guanipa’s refusal to recognize and be sworn in by the regime’s National Constituent Assembly, a supra-parliamentary body that the ruling socialists implemented to nullify the National Assembly at a time when it was led by the opposition.
The politician was released on Sunday alongside a group of about 30 other political prisoners of the Venezuelan regime — but was rearrested less then 12 hours later on Sunday night when a group of armed men in civilian clothing abducted him when he was attending an activity in Caracas.
Immediately after his release, and prior to his rearrest, Guanipa accompanied relatives of other political prisoners waiting in vigil outside the Helicoide (“the Helix”), Venezuela’s largest and most infamous torture center. Guanipa also spoke with Machado in a video call and gave an interview to Venezuelan journalist Luis Olavarrieta.
On Monday, Guanipa’s son, Ramón Guanipa, denounced that his father remained missing and in conditions of forced disappearance. Venezuela’s Public Prosecutor’s Office alleged that Guanipa had violated the terms of his release, but failed to disclose any specifics. On Sunday afternoon, Guanipa told reporters that the only restrictions imposed on him for his release were a compulsory appearance before a court every 30 days and a ban on traveling outside of the country.
On Tuesday morning, Ramón Guanipa used his father’s social media account to announce that the politician is now under house arrest at his son’s house in Maracaibo.
The younger Guanipa, speaking on behalf of his family, thanked the United States government, President Donald Trump, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their work in support of freedom in Venezuela and for all political prisoners.
“My father remains unjustly imprisoned, because house arrest is still imprisonment, and we demand his full freedom and that of all political prisoners,” the message concluded.
Speaking to reporters in Maracaibo, Ramón Guanipa detailed that his father was ordered to wear an electronic ankle bracelet and was prohibited from speaking to the press or using social media — stressing that “he has less freedom than he did on Sunday.”
“While I was giving an interview in which I didn’t know where he was, we started to hear screams (…) they brought him home by plane,” the son said. “He has an electronic shackle on his ankle and two officials stationed in the parking lot inside the house. He is prohibited from speaking to the media, appearing on social media, among other things.”
“You cannot normalize the fact that now that he is home, everything is fine. There is still an injustice that was committed, there is still a kidnapping that occurred, and it cannot go unmentioned,” he continued. “There is still a measure that was supposedly violated by him, which is not the case because he did not violate his initial freedom.”
Over the past few weeks, since January 8, the Venezuelan socialist regime has released hundreds of political prisoners in batches. Last month, President Trump revealed in a Truth Social post that he canceled a second wave of attacks on Venezuela after the Venezuelan regime agreed to release “large numbers of political prisoners.” According to the non-governmental organization Foro Penal, 426 political prisoners have been released since January 8.
Cabello, during his PSUV press conference Monday, reportedly claimed that “897” individuals have been released, but noted that the number had been reduced to 896 because “a person was rearrested for violating the conditions under which they were released.”
The Venezuelan interior minister has repeatedly denied over the past weeks that the socialist regime holds political prisoners, and has instead claimed that the men and women released so far are instead criminals who are being given “another opportunity.”
Cabello reportedly insisted once again on Monday that the released prisoners are individuals who were detained “for committing crimes” and have been granted an “opportunity” by the socialist regime.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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