Caracas Chronicles

“At first, we thought that it [the suspension of USAID funds] was not going to affect us because we thought it was going to mostly target organizations focused on issues of diversity, inclusion, the LGBT community, the environment, etc.”, says Carlos, a Caracas-based journalist who works in a migration-centered NGO. “Our USAID-funded project was already approved and the money was already there.” Then, the following week, management texted his team to tell them they “had to stop operations and everything we had planned.”

Throughout Venezuela, as in much of the developing world, many NGOs and independent media had suddenly stopped working following a sudden cut of funds from USAID, the United States’ agency primarily responsible with foreign civilian aid and development assistance.

The freeze came mid-January, after hundreds of USAID employees were laid off and the website was taken down. The following days, USAID operations were ordered a 90-day global halt while tech tycoon Elon Musk—now director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a temporary governmental organization created after Donald Trump’s 2024 electoral victory—called USAID a “criminal organization” and announced he was on the process of shutting it down. Trump, meanwhile, said the organization had been hijacked by “radical left lunatics”. The same day Musk announced his plans, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was appointed as USAID’s interim administrator and announced that the agency would be merged with the State Department. Afterwards, most of USAID’s 10,000 employees were put on leave (a judge later blocked this decision). The closure of USAID might face other institutional obstacles.

Nevertheless, the demolition of USAID immediately raised major international concerns due to the agency’s crucial role in providing humanitarian aid and supporting development in over 100 countries. “Over the last week, 50% of the Global Health Bureau and 60% of the Humanitarian Assistance Bureau have been fired”, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy tweeted, “Aid programs everywhere have been closed. The U.S. is in full retreat from the world. Dystopian. No good reason for it.” NGOs and humanitarian workers throughout the world also warned of the incoming devastating consequences of the agency’s freeze: malnourished children in Sudan dying, almost 200,000 African babies getting HIV or 400 Burmese students getting their pro-democracy scholarships canceled.

As some Venezuelan NGOs are preparing to become clandestine over the new law, others are dealing with the unexpected effects of the USAID freeze just a few weeks before the domestic ‘anti-society law’ comes into effect.

Venezuela—where 35,7% of the United Nations’ humanitarian response was funded by the United States according to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and where U.S. foreign assistance funds saw a 26 fold increase in a decade as the country collapsed—is no exception. In fact, the cuts come a few weeks before the country’s Fiscalization Law or (as critics call it) “anti-society law” comes into effect. The law, which will highly regulate Venezuelan NGOs and establishes a new registry for them, was approved last year by the chavista-controlled National Assembly and has been compared by critics to similar laws in Nicaragua and Russia that have crushed their NGOs.

“While the U.S. measure is global, it has a different impact in countries like Venezuela, where the brutal closure of civic space will worsen with the implementation of new legislation”, says Juan, a human rights defender. “In theory, the first phase of the law is set to be implemented on February 13^th. So far, we only know the requirements and the timeframe, but not where and how to submit the requirements outlined in the law.” Even Fe y Alegría, the long-standing Venezuelan chain of Jesuit-run schools in low-income countries, has been affected by the cuts. 

In fact, Juan doubts Venezuela’s weakened state has the capacity to process the NGO’s updated information and new requirements. “So, a range of options arises: On February 13, NGOs go [to the registry] to comply, and officials don’t know what to do”, he says, “or NGOs go but don’t meet the requirements, so they are sent back to correct them in accordance with the law.” Juan believes, following comparisons with other authoritarian states, that the government will likely review and close NGOs it has already tackled while leaving others “in limbo with a sword of Damocles hanging over them.”

In Venezuela, civil society groups must already abide by many regulations through almost 40 laws, according to watchdog group Acceso a la Justicia. Besides, Juan says, the country has a Law of Sovereignty and National Self-Determination created in 2011, during a time the Chávez government tried to crack down on electoral NGO Súmate, back then directed by María Corina Machado. The law could be used to fine NGOs, has very ambiguous wording regarding foreign funding but has never been applied in practice. “In addition to that, you have the Organized Crime Law, Sudeban regulations, the Hate Law, and now the [recent] Fiscalization Law, Simón Bolívar Law, Asset Forfeiture Law, and soon, [the Law Against] Fascism”, says Juan, which have been designed to crack down on the political opposition.

As some Venezuelan NGOs are preparing to become clandestine over the new law, others are dealing with the unexpected effects of the USAID freeze just a few weeks before the ‘anti-society law’ comes into effect. “The entire execution of our program has been diminished and, to some extent, paralyzed by the uncertainty”, says Rodrigo, who works in a humanitarian NGO in Caracas. His organization has reduced expenses and redistributed staff to areas where it’s most needed to finish some projects before the remaining funds run out. The contracts of part of the staff end on March 11, he says, and if the funds are not unfrozen or renewed, they would be immediately fired. “There is another organization that has already slashed 75% of its staff at the central office in Caracas”, he says. While Secretary Rubio issued a waiver for humanitarian work following the outrage, the website Rodrigo’s NGO uses to claim its funds remains frozen.

“To admit that you receive U.S. funds in Venezuela is very dangerous,” Juan says, “and it’s ridiculous because USAID humanitarian funds go through the UN and its various agencies, which the government knows. It’s more about the narrative for their fanatics.”

Organized civil society has also been battered. “My project is directly affected” by the suspension of funds, says Luisa, who works in a Venezuelan data-recollection organization, which had survived a previous USAID reduction of partners and was selected as part of a decade-long plan. “We were renewing our agreement for six months. Now we have to wait at least 90 days.” For the first time in the organization’s history, its journalists cannot collect data and fact-check it. “This is going to open an impressive gap in the data we have never had”, she says. Some digital informational channels, similarly, have stopped their delivery channels and content.

Meanwhile, chavismo has used the USAID freeze to attack civil society in Venezuela. While a long-standing fake news of misuse of USAID funds by Juan Guaidó’s “interim government” has taken flight again (these funds were never transferred to the ‘interim government’ but to a plethora of NGOs and humanitarian organizations), Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello—the mastermind and promoter behind the anti-society law—accused USAID of funding the 2023 opposition primaries. He also mentioned USAID’s known funding of a pro-democracy rock festival in Venezuela in 2011 and promised to disclose how the agency “financed the Súmates of Venezuela; Provea, Espacio Libre [sic]”, naming and misnaming different Venezuelan human and political rights NGOs. Afterwards, he said NGOs would be called to testify on their funding and projects. Chavista media have also unfoundedly tied Rawayana, a highly popular band critical of the government, of being supported by USAID or baselessly claimed that 6,200 journalists were paid by USAID to “attack Venezuela.” Meanwhile, conservative opposition influencers have accused NGOs and some factions of the old opposition establishment of misusing the funds. 

“To admit that you receive U.S. funds in Venezuela is very dangerous,” Juan says, “and it’s ridiculous because USAID humanitarian funds go through the UN and its various agencies, which the government knows. It’s more about the narrative for their fanatics.”

“For now, we won’t be able to continue with our operations properly during February and we were asked as workers to do certain things to maintain a little presence, like voluntary work”, Carlos says, “at least for the month, while we also look for other forms of funding.”

The names of all interviewees have been changed for security reasons.