Get the latest security and defense stories from across the Americas.
According to Venezuelan human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Provea, Venezuelan security forces killed 10,085 people in the last 10 years. The data presented in a new report mostly refers to extrajudicial executions, but also includes deaths during the massive protests that took place in 2014 and 2017. The number of murders increased until 2020, then began to fall. According to…
Venezuela and Iran have consolidated a strategic alliance that dates back more than two decades to counteract their international isolation due to their human rights violations and anti-democratic activities, an April 23 report of Italy-based Center for the Study of Geopolitics and International Relations (CEGRI) indicated. More than a bilateral relationship, this alliance has a geopolitical impact in the entire…
Spokespersons of the Venezuelan Armed Forces are using their X and Instagram accounts to praise Nicolás Maduro in a push to support his reelection and criticize opposition leaders. In his X account, Venezuela’s main military operational chief, General Domingo Hernández Lárez, mixes messages about military deployments throughout the country with political tirades. The Army officer has more than 170,000 followers…
The Nicolás Maduro regime is moving forward with the approval of a law to protect itself against dissent, with sentences of 12 years in prison for those labeled as fascists. The majority pro-regime Parliament approved the draft of the Law against Fascism, Neo-Fascism, and Similar Expressions, on April 2. “This initiative of the governing party attacks so that the left…
In little more than a decade, the regime of Nicolás Maduro has led Venezuela to the brink of collapse. The crisis in the South American country not only affects its own people, but also undermines regional and international stability, Spanish think tank Elcano Royal Institute says in an April 5 report. According to the report, Venezuela: A Regional and International…
The recent visit of an Iranian delegation to Venezuela marks a new chapter in the already robust strategic alliance between both countries, raising questions about the implications for regional and global stability. According to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, the March 11 meeting aimed at reviewing bilateral cooperation. Both countries, under autocratic regimes and facing international sanctions for human rights violations,…
Early in Venezuela’s electoral year Nicolás Maduro undertook a set of measures to distance the country from the United Nations (U.N.) system of human rights protection and aiming at closing the civic space. A sign of what was to come appeared in December, when the regime’s prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, ordered the arrest of Roberto Abdul, director of Venezuelan nongovernmental…
The majority pro-regime Venezuelan Parliament approved the creation of a new state in Guyana’s Essequibo territory, the subject of a long-running dispute between the neighboring countries, Reuters reported on March 21. The law creates the new state of Guayana Esequiba. The state’s borders would be the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Brazil to the south, Guyana to the east, and…
A report released February 29 by the organization Freedom House presents Nicaragua and Venezuela at the top of its blacklist of countries by region where electoral manipulation was used, leading to a significant decline of political rights and civil liberties in the last 10 years. "Global freedom took a big step backward in 2023," noted Michael J. Abramowitz, president of…
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is keeping up its assault on civil society, this time focusing its attacks on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and threatening to put an end to nonprofit organizations, which continuously question the actions of the regime. In mid-January, the Venezuelan National Assembly, with a pro-regime majority, approved the Law for the Control, Regularization, Performance, and Financing of Nongovernmental and…
In a desperate effort to maintain cohesion of his political base, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro once again bemoaned alleged plots against him. Presenting his annual address before the ruling party-dominated National Assembly in mid-January, Maduro claimed that intelligence bodies had uncovered “four conspiracies with foreign components, planned from Miami and Colombia.” “I am delivering evidence, recordings, testimonies. All those involved, civilians…
In a move seen as expanding the crackdown on the opposition, the regime of Nicolás Maduro detained human rights activist Rocío San Miguel, accusing her of plotting to kill Maduro, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said via X. San Miguel was arrested February 9 at an airport in Caracas in relation to a vague conspiracy scheme aimed at regime officials.…
