Venezuelan opposition leader Guanipa arrested
Juan Pablo Guanipa had been in hiding since a presidential election last year. (EPA Images pic)
CARACAS : Well-known Venezuela opposition politician Juan Pablo Guanipa, a close ally of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, is under arrest for allegedly leading a terrorist plot, interior minister Diosdado Cabello said yesterday.
Officials regularly accuse the opposition of conspiring with countries such as the US to commit terrorism, overthrow president Nicolas Maduro and attack Venezuela's power grid.
The opposition and Washington have always denied the accusations.
Guanipa's arrest comes just days ahead of Venezuela's parliamentary elections.
Seventy people, including foreigners, have been detained in the alleged plot to carry out attacks during tomorrow's regional and legislative elections, Cabello said, adding that Guanipa also faces charges of money laundering and inciting hatred.
Guanipa, a 60-year-old lawyer and long-time politician, had been in hiding since a presidential election last year.
Machado, who was barred from running for president but remains popular among many Venezuelans, is also in hiding.
'He thought he was untouchable, invisible,' Cabello said in a statement broadcast on state television, showing a video of Guanipa, clad in a flak jacket, being arrested by masked agents.
Electoral authorities and the country's top court backed Maduro as last year's election winner, but have not offered ballot box level tallies of votes.
The opposition, which has published detailed tallies, says its candidate roundly won, and international observers have said the vote was not democratic.
The opposition and rights groups have decried a brutal crackdown by the government, including arrests, since the 2024 election.
Guanipa said his arrest was motivated by the government's fear of the Venezuelan people and their votes last year.
'Brothers, if you are reading this it is because I have been kidnapped by the forces of the regime of Nicolas Maduro,' he said in a statement posted to his X account.
'I don't know what will happen to me in the coming hours, days and weeks. But I am sure that we will win this long fight against the dictatorship.'
'To Juan Pablo and all our imprisoned colleagues: every moment of our lives is dedicated to freeing you and all of Venezuela,' Machado said in her own post on X.
She said 50 political activists, human rights defenders and journalists are among those arrested.
Guanipa's brother Pedro was arrested in September for alleged corruption at the mayor's office in Maracaibo, where he was an official.
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