‘Thanking God for everything’ - For Catholic politician, gratitude strengthened faith in Venezuelan prison

Juan Pablo Guanipa is one of the best-known faces of the Venezuelan opposition.

He is widely considered to be Nobel Peace Prize Award winner María Corina Machado’s right-hand man.

He has served as a local councilmember, congressman, and vice president of the National Assembly. In 2017, he won the gubernatorial election in Zulia state -– the largest in the country -– but was prevented from taking power by the Venezuelan regime.

Guanipa is well known in Venezuela for three things: His directness -– radically, to some — in confronting the Maduro regime, his sense of humor, and his Catholic faith.

Following the July 2024 election that saw former dictator Nicolás Maduro declared the winner under widespread suspicions of fraud, Guanipa went into hiding for nine months.

He was found and arrested on May 23, 2025 and accused of conspiracy and terrorism. He was then imprisoned until Feb. 9, 2026, when he was freed amid a massive release of political prisoners after the Jan. 3 American capture of former dictator Nicolás Maduro.

But he was rearrested just hours after his release, after he gave several media interviews and visited the families of other political prisoners still in custody.

A day later, after significant local and international pressure, Guanipa reappeared in his house in Maracaibo, under home arrest, with a tracking device attached to his leg. He was finally released from house arrest on Feb. 19.

The Pillar spoke with Guanipa about his Catholic faith, his time in prison, and the Church’s role in the Venezuelan crisis. The interview was conducted in Spanish and has been edited for length and clarity.

What was your time in prison like? How did you make it through this time spiritually?

Prison is an extremely rough ordeal. When you get there, you ask yourself, why is this happening to me? And when you face such a difficult moment in life, people have two options. One is to lose faith. I know of cases of people who have lost faith when faced with very hard times.

But the other is the opposite: to take root in faith, to deepen faith. And I have to thank God very much because what he did for me was to help me in this circumstance to strengthen my faith. I have been a practicing Catholic all my life, aware of my virtues and also