2025 brought a whirlwind to the Venezuelan crisis. In a context marked by post-electoral repression, the realignment of organizations in the face of the implementation of the oversight law and the Simón Bolívar law, and the recent impacts on financing, the illegitimate government is advancing a proposal for radical transformation through a constitutional reform initiative. On February 15, Maduro outlined the Constitutional Reform Project to the National Assembly, within the framework of the Solemn Session for the 206th anniversary of the installation of the Angostura Congress, with which he seeks to shape the legal system to consolidate power after the coup d’état of January 10.
The reform would be centered on four fundamental points. “The inclusion of communal power; the values for building a new society; a new economic base and the constitutional-political legal update,” according to its promoter, the de facto president himself. While it refers to general issues and the details are still unknown, the broad outlines of the content are predictable. As we have noted, this is a commitment to adopting a political model from a more closed – and surely more controlled – space, which could lead to changes that serve as a foundation for a totalitarian structure.
Among the most notable concerns of the reform project is the possible displacement of mayors and governors as territorial and local management bodies through the “communal State”, and the expansion of the bases to legitimize new forms of persecution of real or perceived dissident under the guise of combating “fascist, neo-fascist, Zionist or any other threats.” Given that these are elements present in Maduro’s speech, the interest in finally breaking down the civic and democratic space and, if necessary, reactivating state violence is evident, which has recently generated 2,400 arrests, including some 150 adolescents, and at least 27 murders, as well as numerous cases of torture and enforced disappearances.
Maduro has given a 90-day deadline for the special commission he created to present the official reform project. The current urgency suggests that this year Venezuela faces the risk of changing its fundamental political structure, even at the cost of massively defrauding the popular will, as occurred on July 28. Curiously, while this reform is being promoted, the announced elections for governors and mayors until May 2025 are being postponed; figures that will become symbolic once the announced reform is approved, through some fraudulent mechanism, as happened with the referendum on Essequibo and the presidential election.
The reform move adds to a snowball effect that, while it could lead to greater international isolation, given its size it entails the danger of promoting a sort of normalization of crimes against humanity and the serious deprivations of the humanitarian emergency. The collapse of the power plant operating in the Argentine embassy in Caracas has just been reported, with which the asylum seekers would go into survival mode. Several serious attacks are being planned to be attempted in a few months.
The danger of normalization, however, collides with the unstoppable reality of a migratory and humanitarian crisis that is on track and with the phenomenon of the expansion of transnational organized crime from Caracas, whose manifestations are becoming increasingly palpable in several States of the region. That is why the case of Venezuela cannot fail to attract attention: in addition to a serious human rights crisis, it continues to develop as a serious threat to the stability and security of the Americas.
AlertaVenezuela calls on the international community to strengthen its monitoring of Venezuela and promote agreed political solutions, which actively involve the Secretary General of the UN, and adopt the protection of the rights of the population as their center. It is necessary to raise the cost of arbitrary actions and bring about incentives in accordance with International Law that lead to negotiating a peaceful transition of power.