🇻🇪 Venezuela — Accountability Record

📌 Delcy Rodríguez Sworn In as Interim President Amid Constitutional Uncertainty · 2026S2

Rodríguez, who had served as Maduro's vice president since 2018 and previously oversaw much of Venezuela's oil economy and its intelligence services, took the oath of office before the National Assembly on 5 January 2026. The Venezuelan government's official position is that Maduro remains the country's de jure president despite his capture and detention in the United States.

⚖️ Constituent Assembly Bypasses the Opposition-Controlled National Assembly · 2017S5

After the opposition won a supermajority in the National Assembly in 2015, Maduro convened a new "Constituent Assembly" via presidential decree rather than the referendum the constitution required, elected in a vote the opposition boycotted and independent observers called neither free nor fair. The Chávez-packed Supreme Tribunal validated the move. The new body stripped the elected National Assembly of its powers, effectively ending Venezuela's last remaining check on presidential authority.

💰 Hyperinflation and Economic Collapse · 2018S5

Venezuela's economy contracted by an estimated 75% between 2013 and 2021 — one of the largest peacetime economic collapses on record — with inflation reaching an IMF-estimated 1,000,000%+ annualised rate by 2018. Currency and price controls inherited and extended from the Chávez era, combined with the government printing money to cover deficits after the 2014 oil price crash, drove the collapse; US sanctions imposed from 2017 onward, targeting the government's access to international credit and oil markets, compounded it further.

🔴 2024 Election Stolen: Independent Tallies Show a Landslide Loss · 2024S5

Venezuela's electoral authority declared Maduro the winner of the July 2024 presidential election with 52% to opposition candidate Edmundo González's 43%, but never published the detailed polling-station tally sheets required by law. The opposition instead obtained and digitised copies of roughly 85% of those tally sheets from over 30,000 polling stations, showing González had actually won by a landslide, around 67% to 30%. The Carter Center, the Organization of American States, and the UN all rejected the official result; political scientist Steven Levitsky called it "one of the most egregious electoral frauds in modern Latin American history." A post-election crackdown, "Operation Tun Tun," saw mass arrests of opposition supporters on unfounded terrorism charges.

👥 Largest Migration Crisis in Modern Latin American History · 2024S5

By 2026, an estimated 7.6–7.9 million Venezuelans had fled the country — around a quarter of the pre-crisis population — driven by economic collapse, food and medicine shortages, and political repression. Colombia alone hosts over 2.8 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants; Brazil has taken in over 600,000 more. It is the largest external displacement crisis in the Western Hemisphere's recorded history.

⚖️ UN Mission Finds National Guard Committed Crimes Against Humanity · 2025S5

The UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela concluded in a December 2025 report that officials of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) had committed the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds for more than a decade, including arbitrary killings, torture, and sexual violence during protest crackdowns and targeted political persecution since 2014. The mission found "structural impunity" in Venezuela's courts and said senior military and political authorities, not just low-ranking personnel, may bear criminal responsibility.

🌐 Maduro Captured in US Military Operation, Flown to New York · 2026S5

On 3 January 2026, US forces launched "Operation Absolute Resolve," striking Venezuelan air defences and capturing Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores at his Caracas compound, before flying them to New York to face long-standing US drug-trafficking indictments. Venezuelan officials said at least 23 security personnel were killed; Cuba said 32 of its own military and intelligence personnel in Venezuela died. UN officials and international law experts across the political spectrum said the raid violated the UN Charter and Venezuela's sovereignty regardless of the legitimacy of the charges against Maduro.

⚖️ Supreme Tribunal Packed, Expanding Bench From 20 to 32 Justices · 2004S4

The 2004 Law on the Supreme Tribunal of Justice expanded the court from 20 to 32 magistrates and let the Chávez-controlled National Assembly appoint the new seats by simple majority, rather than the two-thirds supermajority the constitution otherwise required for judicial appointments. This gave the government a reliable majority on Venezuela's highest court, which went on to consistently rule in the executive's favour, including validating the 2017 Constituent Assembly documented in the following period.

🏥 Bolivarian Missions Cut Poverty Through Oil-Funded Social Programmes · 2004✅

Funded directly by nationalised oil revenue, the Chávez government ran large-scale "Misiones Bolivarianas" programmes: Barrio Adentro brought over 20,000 Cuban doctors into poor neighbourhoods for free primary healthcare, Misión Robinson ran a mass literacy campaign, and Misión Mercal subsidised food staples. Venezuela's official poverty rate fell substantially through the mid-2000s oil boom years.

💰 Nationalisation of Oil, Telecoms, Electricity, and Heavy Industry · 2007S4

Between 2005 and 2009, Chávez's government converted 30 of 32 private oil operating agreements into PDVSA-controlled joint ventures, decreed a minimum 60% state share in the Orinoco Belt, and renationalised the telecoms company CANTV (paying $1.3bn for 79.6% of its shares) and the electricity utility Electricidad de Caracas. Steel, cement, and banking followed. The programme was funded by, and in turn deepened the state's dependence on, oil export revenue.

📺 RCTV Broadcast License Not Renewed After Years of Government Criticism · 2007S3

Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), Venezuela's oldest private broadcaster and a vocal government critic that had backed the 2002 coup attempt against Chávez, had its terrestrial broadcast license allowed to lapse in May 2007 rather than renewed, taking its signal off the air and prompting large protests. The channel continued broadcasting via cable and satellite until a further 2010 shutdown of that service too.