Friday, 17 October 2025
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** All eyes on Venezuela
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Armed, hooded men in unmarked SUVs seizing people from public spaces in the light of day; a raid on someone’s home at night – these actions have become all too common in Venezuela, as revealed in a just published report ([link removed]) by the UN. The arrested all disappear into the country’s opaque justice system, which was crowned the worst in the world in terms of abuse of power in 2019. They share something else in common too – they’re critics of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

Venezuela is in the spotlight right now. Last week leading opposition figure María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness”. This week we announced our Freedom of Expression awards shortlist ([link removed]) , which has on it the Venezuelan journalist Carlos Correa. And two days ago a drug boat was blown up ([link removed]) by the US military off Venezuela's coast. Donald Trump has said the actions are being taken to stop the narcotic trade, but many suspect it’s really about regime change in Venezuela. This is a terrible way to unseat Maduro. But to the broader point of regime change that’s desperately needed.

We’ve kept an eye on the situation in Venezuela since Maduro first came to power in 2013. The country was in economic freefall, which Maduro spun into opportunity. Paper shortages, for example, translated into the closure of newspapers ([link removed]) , and Maduro was quick to blame the country’s woes on his political enemies. The chutzpah given his party had already been in power for years by then. The situation remained unstable. Three years later people had to carry large bags of cash around just to buy basic items while the human rights abuses escalated. In 2019 journalist Stefano Pozzebon, who was based in Caracas, described Venezuela in the pages of Index magazine as a “totalitarian society ([link removed]) ”. A human rights activist he interviewed for the article called it “sadistic”.

Venezuela continued to experience hyperinflation through to 2024 and the oppression continued to grow. And yet remarkably significant support gathered around Machado, and then her running mate Edmundo González (after Machado was barred) during the elections of that year. Their campaign to rally (and tally) votes was formidable and credible evidence suggests they won by a healthy margin. Except Maduro refused to accede power. González fled the country. Machado went into hiding and the opposition was relentlessly pursued. Today Venezuela houses the highest number of political prisoners in Latin America.

Eight million people have left the country since Maduro’s ascension, citing economic hardship, rising crime and political repression. Overseas their troubles are fewer but haven’t altogether disappeared. A Venezuelan human rights activist and a political consultant were shot ([link removed]) in Bogota, Colombia on Monday, for example, in what many believed was a targeted attack.

The central principles behind the Index awards are to spotlight extraordinary people and to highlight areas of the world where free speech is under attack and where more attention should be given. That’s very much Venezuela.


Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** More from Index
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How a billionaire mogul pushed France’s media to the right ([link removed])

Vincent Bolloré, known as the "French Murdoch", dominates media on the other side of the Channel ([link removed])

We’re going on a bear hunt: Spitting Image challenged over Paddington satire ([link removed])

The recent litigation raises questions as to the Peruvian immigrant's meaning in British culture ([link removed])

From Russia to Sudan: The week in free expression ([link removed])

A round-up of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days ([link removed])

Losing three years of your life to litigation abuse isn’t funny ([link removed])

The survivor of a sexual assault explains why her story proved impossible to tell ([link removed])

The legal system is being weaponised to silence SGBV survivors ([link removed])

Index has published a new report showing how survivors are facing abusive SLAPPs ([link removed])

Madagascar: President flees Gen Z protests but deep problems remain ([link removed])

Student leaders tell Index they are worried their revolution may end up being hijacked ([link removed])

Index on Censorship announces 2025 Freedom of Expression awards shortlist ([link removed])

Artists, campaigners and journalists among those nominated for the Awards ([link removed])

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** New report: From Survivor to Defendant
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A new report, From Survivor to Defendant: How the law is being weaponised to silence victims of sexual violence, by Index on Censorship reveals how survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the UK and Ireland are being silenced through abusive legal actions known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).
READ THE REPORT ([link removed])


** From Russia to Sudan: The week in free expression ([link removed])
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** >> SUDAN: ([link removed]) Journalist killed in El Fasher drone attack ([link removed])
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** >> USA: ([link removed]) CBS News staffers say new owner David Ellison “just can’t be trusted” ([link removed])
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** >> RUSSIA: ([link removed]) Authorities escalate attacks on activists in exile ([link removed])
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** >> INDIA: ([link removed]) Female journalists excluded from Afghan embassy even ([link removed]) t
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** >> PERU: ([link removed]) Clashes between police and Gen Z protesters leave one dead ([link removed])
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** >> ISRAEL/PALESTINE: ([link removed]) Israel releases only three of 19 journalists detained ([link removed])
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** >> AFGHANISTAN: ([link removed]) Alt-travel influencers visit the most dangerous places ([link removed])
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** Flashback
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The woman who stopped Malta’s mafia taking over ([link removed])

by Paul Caruana Galizia ([link removed])

Volume 52, Issue ([link removed]) 4

"I grew up thinking it normal to have our mother’s name all over the newspapers. for politicians to sue and slander her, to have our house set on fire."

Yesterday marked eight years since the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. On 16 October 2017 Daphne was assassinated when a car bomb was planted under her car seat outside her home in Bidnija, Malta. She was targeted for her work exposing government corruption and organised crime in Malta.

In memory of her death, we revisit an interview with her son, Paul Caruana Galizia who despite her murder, has followed in her footsteps. Read the story here. ([link removed])


** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling out human rights abuses and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as Venezuela, Madagascar, and the UK has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by: (Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro) Marcos Salgado/Xinhua/Alamy Live News; ( Daphne Caruana Galizia) courtesy of the Daphne Caruana Galizia foundation

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