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.

Join our official channel in English through this link.

Key takeaways from the Carter Center’s detailed report

The Carter Center released its final report on the July 28 elections this week—almost seven months after Maduro’s fraudulent victory and at a time when minor opposition groups are preparing to field candidates in the upcoming mega-elections, now scheduled for May. The Carter Center had already made it clear that it did not recognize the results announced by CNE head Elvis Amoroso, stating that the presidential elections failed to meet democratic standards. Jennie Lincoln, head of the mission in Venezuela, even publicly displayed copies of official voting tallies as the clearest indication yet that Edmundo González was the legitimate winner.

This will likely be the last we hear from the Carter Center on Venezuela for some time. Their report is as damning as it is comprehensive, detailing the government’s irregularities and abuses throughout the campaign, the voter and candidate registration process, election day itself, and the intensified wave of repression that followed.

Here are some key revelations that further help us piece together how elections still work in Venezuela:

1. After maintaining direct contact with CNE personnel, technical experts, and auditors familiar with the electoral system, the Carter Center revealed that only three individuals within the electoral authority—the members of the National Electoral Board (JNE)—can access election results through an independent dashboard called Certeza, separate from the ExCle system. The JNE, led by rector Carlos Quintero, also has access to another module called Forecast, which signals when the overall election result becomes irreversible. This confirms what we previously reported in Anatomy of a Fraud: only Quintero, Amoroso, and perhaps one other privileged insider had access to the official results. Not even the other chavista rectors were in a position to issue bulletins.
2. The report also describes how the Carter Center had unrestricted access to review Venezuela’s electoral infrastructure and technology. The Carter Center noted that, prior to the election, there was a climate of full cooperation with CNE and ExCle staff, with all questions answered in a transparent and communicative manner. However, this collaborative approach collapsed immediately after Amoroso announced unverified results, prompting the CNE to cancel the three post-election audits that Quintero himself had previously scheduled.
3. The Carter Center deployed observers across 55 voting centers in Barinas, Caracas, Maracaibo, and Valencia, where they witnessed a generally smooth voting process on July 28. However, members of the ruling PSUV’s puntos rojos or red points—the government-affiliated voter control outposts—openly admitted to observers in multiple locations that their role was to monitor and record who voted and who didn’t. These practices were particularly blatant in voting centers set up for the first time in this election, such as communal spaces, Misión Vivienda housing buildings, and PSUV-affiliated social organizations, where close ties existed between voting center coordinators and puntos rojos operatives.

Conflict between indigenous groups and miners in Manapiare, Amazonas

Runrunes reported that the Venezuelan state is mediating with Yekuana and Sanema communities in Santa Rosa de Tencua (Manapiare municipality, Amazonas state) following an attack by illegal miners on a Yekuana settlement on January 22. Miners reportedly burned houses, a communal churuata, and boats—also assaulting community members, including a pregnant woman. The attack was in retaliation for a “coordinated action” by around 90 indigenous people and local organizations to expel miners from the Paru River, during which they destroyed “five gold extraction machines while avoiding direct confrontations,” according to the Indigenous Rights Promotion Program Wayamoutheri on Instagram.

After two days of negotiations between indigenous representatives, the Amazonas governor’s office, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, and the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Amazonas, Runrunes reports that an agreement was reached to prioritize a “life plan for the Yekuana and Sanema people of the Middle and Upper Ventuari.” Local organizations did not provide further details on the deal.

More information: Indigenous representatives say they had reported the presence of illegal miners to the Public Ministry and the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) without receiving a response. SOS Orinoco highlights that this pattern of official silence dates back to 2013, when armed groups from Colombia entered Autana municipality in Amazonas, accelerating illegal mining activity in the region.

Situation reaches breaking point at the Argentine Embassy in Caracas

The Vente Venezuela activists taking refuge in the Argentine embassy are facing an increasingly dire situation, which reached a critical phase this week. The embassy’s power generator, their sole source of electricity, has collapsed, leaving Magalli Meda, Pedro Urruchurtu, Humberto Villalobos, and Omar González—close associates of María Corina Machado—without water, power, or internet connection. They have been surrounded by state security forces for months, and recently, security agents reportedly stole three fuses that supplied power to the generator. They also lack access to potable water, according to a report from El Pitazo.

Why it matters: Eugenia Olavarría, daughter of Magalli Meda (Machado’s second-in-command in Vente Venezuela), told the press on Friday that her mother and the other four asylum seekers are on the verge of total isolation. They also have no way to refrigerate limited food supplies. The regime is exerting maximum pressure to force them out and into police custody. 

“Brazil [responsible for the embassy since Maduro’s election fraud] or Argentina must set a date for them to leave with safe passage documents,” Olavarría stated. “There are armed and masked men outside the embassy. There is no guarantee they can leave Venezuela safely.”

More information: The ordeal for these five Vente Venezuela members began on March 20, 2024, when General Prosecutor Tarek William Saab issued arrest warrants for the asylum seekers and other militants who failed to find shelter in time. That same day, Vente Venezuela leaders Henry Alviarez and Dignora Hernández were arrested, marking the beginning of Maduro’s crackdown on Vente Venezuela’s political ranks as candidate nominations and the electoral campaign for July 28 got underway.

Recommended reads:

• Tal Cual: The National Academy of Medicine reports that 40% of doctors have left Venezuela. In nursing, 70% of personnel have either left the country or migrated to the private sector.
• Efecto Cocuyo: The moderate wing of Primero Justicia, led by Henrique Capriles and Tomás Guanipa, announced their participation in the mega-elections now set for May 25, 2025. The party leadership stated on Saturday that Capriles and Guanipa “are breaking away from the Unity and Primero Justicia.”
• Crónica Uno: Four key aspects of Nicolás Maduro’s proposed constitutional reform, which seeks to amend around 80 articles of the 1999 constitution established by Chávez’s original movement.
• El Nacional: Fedecámaras warns of conservative economic growth in 2025 due to a slow start to the year.