The Venezuela Reader

  2013: President Maduro Faced “Birther” Claims of Being Born in Columbia Article 227 of the Venezuelan constitution states that “To be chosen as President of the Republic, it is required to be Venezuelan by birth, not having another nationality. In April 2013, Nicolas Maduro was certified by the National Electoral Council (CNE) as the winner of the Presidential election. The Supreme Court dismissed calls from the losing candidate, Henrique Capriles, to require Maduro to publicly present his birth certificate. [1] Capriles had questioned Maduro’s nationality, arguing that he may have been born in Columbia. The accusation that Maduro was born in Columbia was first made just before the April 2013 election by Miami’s El Nuevo Herald . [2] The claim was that Maduro, whose mother is Columbian, was born in the Columbian border town of Cucuta. The story resurfaced in June 2013 after Spanish daily El Pais ran a story titled “Where was Maduro Born?” On July 29, Guillermo Cochez, the ...

  Trump Wants U.S. Investment in Venezuela, but Sanctions Still Complicate It The New York Times published an article on January 23, 2026 that described the negative impact of current US sanctions on investment in Venezuela. The article says that until the sanctions are lifted or until exemptions are made, investors in Venezuela would be in violation and potentially subject to large fines. Even the lifting of sanctions may not encourage investors because they can be re-imposed at any time. Here is the article: Trump Wants U.S. Investment in Venezuela, but Sanctions Still Complicate It With tight business restrictions still in place, companies may find it challenging to even assess what opportunities exist for them in the South American nation. By  Aaron Krolik  and  Rebecca F. Elliott The New York Times Published Jan. 23, 2026Updated Jan. 28, 2026  President Trump is trying to kick-start private investment in Venezuela while maintainin...

  2013: Nicolas Maduro Was Declared the Winner of the Presidential Election Hugo Chavez was re-elected President in October 2012, defeating Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles by an 11-point margin. Chavez named Nicolas Maduro as Vice President and urged Venezuelans to vote for him if he (Chavez) did not recover from cancer surgery. Chavez died on March 5, 2013 and Maduro was sworn in as “interim” President. Article 233 of the Constitution stipulates that an election must be held within 30 days following “abandonment” by an elected President. Maduro and Capriles registered as candidates. Maduro’s party (PSUV) was joined by 14 political parties supporting his nomination. The opposition coalition (MUD) endorsed Capriles. On April 9, Maduro signed an Electoral Council (CNE) agreement that he would respect the results of the election. Capriles refused to sign the agreement. [1] Three opposition legislators announced they were breaking with Capriles’ campaign warning of a MUD plan to r...

  2022: The Socialist Party Candidate Lost the Governor’s Election in Barinas The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is the dominant political party in Venezuela. Formed in late 2006 by President Hugo Chavez, PSUV candidates won the Presidency in 2012 (Chavez) and in 2013 and 2018 (Nicolas Maduro). In the Governors’ election of 2017 PSUV candidates won 18 of the 23 states. The western state of Barinas has a special importance in Venezuela as the boyhood home of Hugo Chavez. Chavez’s father was Governor of Barinas from 1998 to 2008.He was followed by Hugo Chavez’s brother Adan and then by older brother Argenis who beat National Assembly member Freddy Superlano in 2017. However, there was considerable discontent with the Chavez-family governors for being autocratic, corrupt and inattentive to the peoples’ problems. Venezuela held governor elections on November 21, 2021. The process was overseen by the National Electoral Council (CNE), two of whose five board members rep...

  2020: The Communist Party Broke with Maduro The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) was founded in 1931 and became the Venezuelan affiliate of the Communist International. It is the oldest active political party in Venezuela. The PCV was outlawed during the military dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez (1948-1958), when it played a key role in organizing clandestine resistance to the regime. The PCV was not included in the 1958 political party pact that formed after Perez was ousted. In the early 1960s, the Party launched a guerrilla war against the government but was unable to mobilize substantial support. The majority of PCV members split from the Party in 1971 to enter politics. In the 1980s and early 1990s the PCV became a marginal force in Venezuelan politics.   In the Presidential elections of 1998 and 2006, the PCV backed Hugo Chavez. In late 2006 Chavez called on all the parties that supported him to dissolve and join together to form one united party, the “United...

  2016: A Spanish Businessman Published Photos of Supermarkets in Caracas Agustin Otxotorena, a Spanish executive living in Caracas grew tired of constant calls from friends and relatives in Spain telling him that there was no food in Venezuela and asking him whether an immediate foreign intervention was necessary to bring in humanitarian aid. On May 20, 2016 he began publishing photos on Facebook of supermarkets in upscale sectors of Caracas filled with goods to contrast them with the frequent photos in Spain’s media which showed empty supermarkets.[1] The Alba Ciudad website, which replicated his posts, garnered 340,000 hits in one week and LaTabla website garnered hundreds of thousands more [2]. The Spanish newspaper ABC replicated Otxotorena’s photos in an article titled “The Basque Businessman who shows how the rich actually have food in Venezuela” but deleted the article and photos since they contradicted the dominant narrative that the newspaper had been publishing. [2...

  2019: U.S. Sanctions Have Prevented Solutions for Venezuela’s Electricity Crisis The Guri Dam on the Caroni River (684 KM from Caracas) was built in the 1960s. The Guri power station is the 6 th largest hydroelectric power station in the world and supplies about 80% of the electricity used in Venezuela. The reliance on hydropower has long been an explicit goal of the government so that a maximum amount of oil can be exported. (Guri replaces the equivalent of 300,000 barrels of oil/day).[3] In 2007, Venezuela’s private power companies were nationalized into one state-run monopoly known as Corpoelec. The company is underfunded and unable to recover its own operating costs. The factors creating this situation dates back to 2002 when national electricity rates were frozen.[1] In Venezuela consumers pay only 20% of the real cost of producing power delivering Venezuelans the lowest electricity rates in Latin America. Supplemental funds have been provided by the state oil company P...

  2016: President Maduro Raised the Price of Gasoline by 6000% In Venezuela, the official price for gasoline was set at a very low rate for many years. Venezuelans viewed cheap gas as a birthright. An overnight attempt by President Carlos Andres Perez to raise gasoline prices in 1989 led to extensive rioting. The official price for premium gas was raised to 10 centavos/liter in 1996. The price remained unchanged under Hugo Chavez’s Presidency (1999-2012). Despite his popularity, Chavez viewed increasing the price of gasoline as politically risky. Gasoline sales generate revenue for the Venezuelan National Government. Gasoline is produced in domestic refineries owned by the Government and distributed to gasoline stations. About 1600 gas stations are owned by the state oil company (PDVSA). Worldwide oil prices declined by 70% between mid-2014 and 2016 which created an income shortfall for the Government since 80% of the Government’s income came from oil export sales. President ...

  2025: The Pro-Government Coalition Won Elections for 23 of 24 Regional Governors The National Electoral Council (CNE) scheduled the 24 gubernatorial elections for May 25, 2025. One opposition leader, Maria Machado, called for abstention and urged voters to boycott the gubernatorial elections. Machado did not accept the results of the 2024 election of Nicolas Maduro as President accusing the CNE of massive fraud and claiming that Edmundo Gonzalez had actually won the Presidential election. Machado maintained that voting would mean surrendering the fraud claims and would serve to “legitimize” Maduro and the CNE.[1] Other opposition leaders complained that Machado had not consulted with them before calling for a voter boycott.[2] In April, several prominent self-described opposition “moderates” announced a new political platform DECIDE to encourage voter turnout. The Decide platform was led by former Presidential candidates Henrique Capriles and Henri Falcon and Jesus “Chuo”...

  2018: President Maduro Accused the U.S. of Pressuring the United Nations to not Send Election Observers In September 2017, President Maduro and the Opposition Coalition (MUD) leaders agreed to a Dialogue process to establish agreement on the 2018 Presidential election process and rules. One demand made by the Opposition was for the Government to ask the United Nations to send a Team of Election Observers to monitor the election. Maduro agreed to ask the UN to send observers. While Maduro signed the final draft election agreement, the Opposition leaders did not. Nevertheless, Maduro said that state institutions would still comply with the electoral guarantees established in the agreement- including requesting UN electoral observers. On February 22, 2018 Electoral Board President Tibisay Lucena announced that the CNE had formally invited the UN to observe the Presidential Election. According to Lucena, the participation of the UN would demonstrate the legitimacy of the Venezuel...

  2017: President Trump’s Sanctions on Venezuela Resulted in Increased Deaths Due to AIDS Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, called HIV. HIV damages the immune system so that the body is less able to fight infection and disease.   There is no cure for HIV/AIDS. 90% of patients with the virus can expect to contract AIDS which is fatal in 8 to 10 years. Medicines (antiviral treatments [ART]) can keep the disease from getting worse. In 1991, Venezuela began to provide ART as part of a program that served the population free-of-charge.[1] The percentage of HIV-positive people receiving ART reached 60% by 2015[2]. All of the ART medicines were imported. The government provided foreign currency to the National Health Ministry for the purchase of ART which then was distributed to pharmacies and hospitals. The foreign currency came from the sale of oil by Venezuela’s state oil company (PDVSA).   Accordi...

  2018: 150 International Observers Declared the Re-Election of Maduro as “Free and Fair” President Nicolas Maduro ran in the Presidential Election on May 20, 2018. The opposition coalition (MUD) boycotted the election and urged its supporters to not vote. Nevertheless, three opposition candidates were on the ballot and received 32% of the vote. Maduro was declared the winner by the Electoral Council (CNE) with 68% of the vote. 150 international election observers were certified by the CNE to observe the election. Seven technical representatives of the Latin American Council of Electoral Experts observed the twenty audits of the electoral system in the months leading to the vote. The other certified observers spent the week before the election observing the process and meeting with the campaign managers of all four candidates. 150 International Observers Summary Report [1] ·        The Observers included representatives from countries such as Spa...

  2015: President Maduro Prepared Venezuela for an Attack from the US After President Obama declared that Venezuela was an “Extraordinary Threat” to the US On March 9, 2015 President Obama signed Executive Order 13692 declaring a National Emergency due to the “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.” He activated The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and sanctioned seven Venezuelan officials Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called the US sanctions “the most aggressive, unjust and harmful step that has ever been taken by the US against Venezuela.” [3] On March 15, the Venezuelan National Assembly approved an Enabling Law which granted Maduro decree powers for nine months to defend against threats from the US. The Law required 60% approval. Maduro noted that, in contrast, Obama’s Emergency Decree required no congressional approval.   The US sanctions were ...