All eyes on Venezuela
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 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, which has on it the Venezuelan journalist Carlos Correa. And two days ago a drug boat was blown up 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, 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”. 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 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
