Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa freed after 8 months in prison

Opposition lawmaker Juan Pablo Guanipa displays a sign that reads in Spanish “More than a million residents of Zulia State eat only once a day” during an intervention against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro at National Assembly, in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File) Caracas, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa on Sunday was released after more than eight months in prison, he said in a video posted on social media.Guanipa, one of the closest allies of opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado, had been held at a detention facility in the capital, Caracas.“Today, we are being released,” Guanipa said in a video posted on X. “Much to discuss about the present and future of Venezuela, always with the truth at the forefront.”He was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” plotting to boycott that month’s legislative election. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation, and said that the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.“Thinking differently cannot be criminalized in Venezuela, and today, Juan Pablo Guanipa is a prisoner of conscience of this regime,” Tomás Guanipa said after the arrest. “He has the right to think as he thinks, the right to defend his ideas, and the right to be treated under a constitution that is not being enforced today.” Juan Pablo Guanipa’s release comes during mounting pressure on the government of acting President Delcy Rodríguez to release all people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked by their families and nongovernmental organizations to their political beliefs. Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president after the capture of then President Nicolás Maduro by the U.S. military last month. Her government last month announced it would free a significant number of prisoners — a central demand of the country’s opposition and human rights organizations with backing from the United States — but families and rights watchdogs have criticized authorities for the slow pace of the releases.