Caracas Chronicles

#NowWhatVenezuela keeps you informed about what’s happening deep inside la patria—from headline-making events to underreported stories that provide the clearest picture of our reality. This report is published weekly.

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What the opposition is saying about the looming “mega elections”

Within the Venezuelan opposition, there is tension between those pushing to participate in tightly controlled and non-competitive elections—while Maduro continues to ban political activity in Venezuela—and the opposition’s limited experience in gaining ground outside electoral and international politics. María Corina Machado has called for a boycott of the so-called April 27 election, set to appoint new governors, national legislators and legislative councils. She insists that Venezuelans should only vote when the true results of the past presidential elections are recognized. She has also labeled politicians who “engage in that maneuver” as non-opposition, even though she still refers to April 27 as a milestone in the pursuit of political change.

“This is a great opportunity to reaffirm our strength and relaunch an organization that exists and adapts to our reality,” Machado said in a recent interview. “That’s what we’re working on every day.”

The nomination period will take place between March 5th and 8th, and regime figures have stated that it will reject candidates linked to USAID funds and through the domestic Liberator Law.

Alongside Machado and Vente Venezuela, the political parties Voluntad Popular, Primero Justicia, and Causa R are calling for abstention. On the other hand, Henrique Capriles (who remains barred from holding office) and the party Movimiento por Venezuela (MPV) were among the first to advocate for participation despite absurd conditions. Andrés Caleca, MPV’s candidate in the 2023 presidential primaries, defended the party’s stance and urged people “to confront this dictatorship in the scheduled elections and in any other.” MPV is still registered under the CNE, and was used to vote for Edmundo González on July 28. Un Nuevo Tiempo, also with an active registration, announced on Thursday that it “will not abandon the electoral roadmap” and called on other parties within the Unitary Platform to consult militants on what to do.

Other groups, including Acción Democrática, are still considering whether to call for voter participation and present candidates. The Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) told Efecto Cocuyo that it is exploring ways to “sneak in” candidates through platforms allowed by the CNE, both for the National Assembly and for governor and legislative council positions. Other dissident chavista groups that supported Enrique Márquez’s presidential bid also remain indecisive.

Why it matters: The nomination period will take place between March 5th and 8th, and regime figures have stated that it will reject candidates linked to USAID funds and through the domestic Liberator Law. Candidates who manage to register will have to navigate a national context where campaign activists and polling station observers have been arrested and intimidated in recent months, while attempting to restore confidence in voting as an institution—at a time when the regime forces opponents to recognize any result issued by the CNE.

Youth Day in Venezuela: Honoring victims of the dictatorship at UCV

At one of the university’s main entrances, students wrote the names of more than 300 young people killed in cycles of protest over the past decade. The event took place on the eleventh anniversary of the deaths of Bassil Da Costa and Robert Redman, two students murdered on February 12, 2014, during day one of the first nationwide protests that Nicolás Maduro faced as president.

Why it matters: Da Costa, who was 23 at the time, was shot by SEBIN officers in La Candelaria neighborhood in western Caracas while protesting. He was assisted by Redman and other young demonstrators who carried his body. Later that night, Redman, 31, decided to return to the protests in Chacao and was killed by unidentified armed men, as Runrunes recalled last year. In 2019, a court sentenced a SEBIN commissioner to 29 years in prison for Da Costa’s murder. Seven other officers were charged in 2017, but the judge who oversaw their trial and placed them under a supervised release program was killed later that year, El Estímulo then reported. PROVEA has denounced that the Venezuelan state still owes a full investigation into the chain of command responsible for these crimes.

Indigenous pirates in Amazonas hijack boat transporting CLAP food packages

The incident took place on Tuesday along a stretch of the so-called “Middle Orinoco” River between Santa Bárbara and San Fernando de Atabapo. A boat navigating the waters to deliver CLAP food packages to Yanomami communities was intercepted by a peñero (small motorboat) carrying armed men who control the area and charge tolls, as seen in videos posted by reporter Fritz Sánchez. So-called “Malandro Pirates of the Middle Orinoco” captured the boat and local government officials from Alto Orinoco municipality before releasing them later that afternoon.

Sánchez reported that checkpoints in that area are controlled by “Cristóbal,” a local indigenous leader who charges between $480 and $970 (2 to 4 million Colombian pesos) to allow travelers to pass—“and if you refuse, he’ll pull out a gun or call the guerrillas to force you to pay,” Sánchez wrote in May 2024.

Why it matters: The exploitation of Yapacana National Park and its surroundings has led to the rise of criminal organizations and armed groups controlling access to mining areas in western Amazonas state, near the Colombian border. According to journalist Sebastiana Barráez, tolls and illicit rents are managed by the Venezuelan Navy, the National Guard, the SENIAT tax authority, and indigenous mafias supported by the National Liberation Army (ELN)—among them, Cristóbal’s gang.

Recommended reads:

• El Estímulo: Venezuelan refugees who previously fled to Colombia are now returning to Venezuela due to violence in Catatumbo. This report includes testimonies from Venezuelan migrants sheltered in a stadium in Cúcuta.
• El Impulso: Six political refugees from Vente Venezuela have spent 80 days without water and under constant siege at the Argentine Embassy in Caracas.
• Crónica Uno: Gas shortages persist in Carabobo as the government prioritizes mixed or state-owned companies like Gas Drácula.
• El Carabobeño: Lawyer Carlota Salazar argues that the Venezuelan state cannot be modified through constitutional amendments.