Thierry Deronne. File photo.
Positions Revue: Chávez and Maduro are the leading figures of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, and they did not build the Bolivarian revolution alone. Neighborhoods and the population have mobilized around structures called “communes”, which are bodies parallel to that of the government. How did they come together? What were the mistakes of the first hours? What about basic democracy: participation of municipalities, delegation?
Thierry Deronne: In Venezuela, the word “commune” means “popular self-government”. Building popular power, changing consciences, moving away from clientelist, paternalistic, capitalist culture, cannot be done in a day. We have moved from fragmentary structures centered on specific demands (like the land committees which aimed at the legalization of invisible zones on official maps in the early 2000s) to structures responsible for increasingly broad social and economic issues: these are the municipalities. They bring together local municipal councils in order to resolve structural challenges over a larger territory.
In 2025, two thirds of Venezuela’s inhabitants declared that there is a municipality on their territory and 83% of them knew the members of their municipal council, which is a local link in each municipality. President Maduro has already given clear directives to ministers in 2025: “70% of each of your budgets must be transferred to municipal councils and communes”. To achieve this, the Bolivarian revolution fumbled for a long time, but without losing any of the experience accumulated over 25 years…
One of the objectives is to reach and strengthen 6,000 municipalities by the end of 2026. But there is no hurry, there is no question of falling into facade communalism. Building a community must come from the grassroots. The municipality must come from training, from a school, from a collective conviction, before becoming a bureaucratic or surface reality.
It must first be said that the appropriation of power by the municipalities is in the genesis of the Bolivarian project. When Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, he referred to three important figures in Bolivarian ideology: Simón Bolivar, of course, Ezequiel Zamora, and a third, lesser-known man, Simón Rodríguez, who was Bolivar’s teacher. Simón Rodríguez spoke about the toparquia, that is to say, according to Greek etymology, the government of the territory (topos, the place, and arkhein, command, govern).
“Before Chávez, we bought social peace through corruption, through all kinds of mechanisms […] Today, in each municipality, there is a finance committee made up of three people, who are elected every two years by the municipal councils and who are required to present a report on their management to the Assembly.
And so, it is immediately part of the project to give power to the territory, that is to say to the inhabitants of the territories. But it must be understood that Venezuela’s past culture is both a little caudillo, individualistic, with an oil revenue which creates clientelism, paternalism… So there were many obstacles to establishing a real communal, horizontal, collective culture. It is therefore after twenty-five years of revolution that we can really begin to see the fruits of this patience.
These 5,000 communard self-governments are fully democratic schools of participation. Whatever their political side or religious affiliation, everyone is welcome and participates, for example, in the development of priority projects for the local community. We must understand that we are not asking anyone to be a member of the Chavista party or anything else. Everyone has the right to speak out, whether they are for or against the president. The municipal councils and municipalities define their project, make a diagnosis, estimate the cost, and report it to the federal government council, which then finances it. Strategic choices are decided during popular consultations: four times a year, a referendum is organized in the municipalities in order to define a priority per municipality: do we need a road,a coffee processing plant, investment in the nearby hospital, etc. The choice is made by the residents, grouped within the municipal council, then the State finances it. And it is an obligation of the State! There is no question of refusing the project of a municipality for reasons of personal or other affinities… No, there is a range of laws that have been passed by the National Assembly, called the laws of popular power, which govern the financing and the obligation for the State to finance projects. It’s not discretionary at all.There is no question of refusing the project of a municipality for reasons of personal or other affinities… No, there is a range of laws that have been passed by the National Assembly, called the laws of popular power, which govern the financing and the obligation for the State to finance projects. It’s not discretionary at all.There is no question of refusing the project of a municipality for reasons of personal or other affinities… No, there is a range of laws that have been passed by the National Assembly, called the laws of popular power, which govern the financing and the obligation for the State to finance projects. It’s not discretionary at all.
When I say that it is a political school, of participation, of direct democracy, I mean that it is much more than choosing projects that will be co-financed by the State. We debate in depth the why of these projects, what the point is, etc. All opinions are expressed, people do not agree, but at the same time it is a school, in the sense that people get used to participating in politics, to being part of the State which is in the making and which we dream of one day finalizing: the municipal state.
Before Chávez, social peace was bought through corruption, through all kinds of mechanisms. From the first years of Chávez, in fact, there was a massive redistribution of money, which came mainly from oil and which until then had been monopolized by a small, extremely rich elite. But it was funding from ministries, so there could be bureaucracy and corruption, because ministers actually used or stole money. What to do at that time? We cannot put a police officer behind every minister or behind every ministry official. The real systemic, concrete solution is for the people to control the funds. Today, in each municipality, there is a finance committee made up of three people elected every two years by the municipal councils and obliged to justify the accounts to the Assembly. We are not in a Chavista circle which would be blind by political persuasion. There, we have precisely this plurality of voices which allows us to control thoroughly, to ask questions. Invoices are presented to the Assembly: material parts, costs incurred, labor costs… Corruption is not completely disappearing, but I would say that it is still reduced to a minimum. the cost of labor… Corruption is not completely disappearing, but I would say it is still reduced to a minimum. the cost of labor… Corruption is not completely disappearing, but I would say it is still reduced to a minimum.
Following the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, we conducted, in partnership with the Becs Rouges collective, an interview with Thierry Deronne, filmmaker and academic specializing in Venezuela. We return with him to the situation in the country.
P R: How did these municipalities start? What is the rate of membership in these municipalities among the population, at the beginning and today? What about the limitation, the rotation of mandates? How are the autonomy and formation of municipalities managed?
Thierry Deronne: Municipalities in Venezuela are territorial organizations that bring together five or more municipal councils, to articulate citizen decisions with state policies, and thus resolve broader needs than those that can be addressed by smaller municipal councils, centered on neighborhoods. They are created by assemblies of citizens, registered by a founding charter, and operate according to the principles of self-management and direct participation. The founding charter is the constitutive act. It is approved by popular referendum and defines the principles, the diagnosis of needs, the inventory of potential and the territory.
Each municipal council sends its elected representative(s) to the municipal Parliament, where the socio-productive organizations and those responsible for the municipal bank also sit. Its spokespersons are elected by the Citizens’ Assembly, with people aged over 15 eligible. They hold office for three years and can be re-elected(s). Note that in indigenous communities, candidacy and election are done in accordance with their customs, customs and traditions.
“ On December 8, 2025, President Maduro gave a boost to “Common or nothing! “, a 2012 speech in which Hugo Chávez explained that without a real transfer of power to municipal structures, the revolution would remain prisoner of the bourgeois state form. “
P R: How does this society of communes interact with the government of Venezuela in parallel? How does this double instance work?
Thierry Deronne: On December 8, 2025, President Maduro gave a boost to “Common or nothing! “, a 2012 speech in which Hugo Chávez explained that, without a real transfer of power to municipal structures, the revolution would remain prisoner of the bourgeois state form. And Maduro took stock: “ Today, we proclaim ourselves a municipal transitional government towards socialism, with our first 5,336 self-government rooms, our first 5,336 territorial governments composed of neighbors, families, communities, concrete social forces who debate, participate, act, build and make their territories visible levers of a new society. “For Bolivarians, the municipal system is opposed, as a “true democracy” nourished by direct popular participation, to the “false democracy” of the representative liberal model and under the control of economic-media power.
In December 2025, the Bolivarian president outlined seven strategic directions that pave the way for a further deepening of the Venezuelan model of direct participation. The goal is for the entire government to adjust its work plans according to the diagnoses and priorities emanating from territorial self-governments, in order to increase the effectiveness of the public response:
1. Expanding participation national popular consultations as a mechanism to deepen comprehensive democracy. The objective is to strengthen collective decision-making and consolidate public works plans. This approach will allow municipal territories to intervene in a real and systematic way in planning their own development.
2. Strengthen the municipal planning system, that is to say the planning capacity of the municipalities and municipal circuits of the country thanks to the articulation between the concrete action agendas developed by the inhabitants(es). Already, 70% of the budget of each ministry must be transferred to municipal projects.
3. Building the self-government system, an objective which is based on the toparquia (“territorial government”), a concept created two centuries ago by the philosopher and professor of Bolivar, Simon Rodríguez, and which is rooted in Venezuela in the state prototypes that were the Afro-descendant and indigenous communities in resistance to the Spanish empire. All municipal authorities must work together to enable populations to make decisions and govern their territories in a democratic manner, with the support of the various government authorities.
4. Strengthen the municipal economy and its banking system is essential to progress towards popular self-management. Consolidate own financing instruments, such as municipal banks. Each municipality must have its own bank. To this end, the objective for 2026 is to support the creation of 4,000 municipal banks, while there are currently 1,758 in the country.
5. The network of missions and major social missions, embryos of the new State created by Chávez, must be permanently present on the municipal territory. The integration of these social policies with self-government rooms aims to ensure that social action directly and consistently reaches the most deprived communities.
The Grand Missions in Venezuela are large-scale social programs created to combat poverty and inequality and guarantee the fundamental rights of education, health, housing and food, focusing on territorial attention direct, including housing, health, youth, women and the elderly. Examples: the Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela (GMVV) launched by Chávez in order to build and allocate decent housing to working families (more than 5.3 million to date); Educational Missions, which allow popular sectors to catch up and access university (Robinson, Ribas and Sucre missions); the Barrio Adentro Mission, which puts prevention before cure,thanks to the participation of popular organizations on the ground (inspired by the Cuban model, it is a huge alternative to commercial medicine, which prevented the poorest from seeking treatment).
6. Training and strategic communication within self-governments must make it possible to rebuild “the country’s communication force to guide public policies requires a powerful training and communication team, as the basis of the State”. Improve coordination with the University of Municipalities in order to strengthen technical, socio-political and communication training throughout the territory.
7. Municipal defense. Prioritize security and territorial defense, made more necessary in the face of repeated threats of military invasion by the United States. In addition to the civic-military union established by President Chávez in the first years of the revolution, it is necessary to strengthen municipal civil support units in the 5,336 municipal territories.
Municipal banks, whose number is expected to increase from 1,758 to 4,000 by April 2026, are becoming localized hubs of production, credit and distribution, outside the global financial system dominated by the dollar. “
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez is continuing these plans. On January 20, 2026, she explained: “Popular power, more than ever, will be the backbone of our revolution. We will put in place the plans drawn up with President Maduro. In 2026, public investments will increase by at least 37%, and the management of funds will remain unchanged compared to 2025: 53% will go directly to people’s power, the rest to town halls and governorates. We have a complete system, the National System of Government, which connects 5,336 municipal circuits. In 2025 there were 170 municipal banks, today there are 1,836. “
The next of the quarterly elections by which each Communard self-government chooses a project that the State will co-finance, will be organized on March 8, 2026. From February 4 to 8, thousands of Communard(es) will share their experiences of productive economy in Caracas. Delcy Rodriguez asked for the full support of the government. The logic is structural: as Western sanctions affect centralized state functions, municipalities become alternative circuits for credit (municipal banks), production (local businesses) and distribution. Municipal banks, expected to increase in number from 1,758 to 4,000 by April 2026, are becoming localized hubs of production, credit and distribution outside the dollar-dominated global financial system.
A system that elects the one with the most money to control TikTok, Instagram or radio and television is not a democracy but a farce, a theater of the absurd. Venezuela doesn’t want it. “
P R: What is the place of the Constitution (and its rewriting) in Venezuela? Is this a fundamental theme or a peripheral discussion? What place is there for the integration of municipalities into the constitution of Venezuela?
Thierry Deronne: Unlike many Western countries, the Bolivarian Constitution is a very lively text here that the population brandished in the streets during the coup d’état against Chávez in 2002. The 1999 Constituent Assembly, which followed the election of Chávez, refounded the State on the basis of inclusion and social justice. In 2026, a new constitutional reform is in the works for, according to Maduro, build a modern democracy based on the direct participation of citizens(s), the power of social movements, of the community. We are moving towards a great process of expanded democratization of Venezuelan society, political, institutional, economic, social, cultural and educational life. A system that elects the one with the most money to control TikTok, Instagram or radio and television is not a democracy but a farce, a theater of the absurd. Venezuela does not want it, because its entire history is imbued with the idea and desire for authentic democracy.
P R: The population is armed by the government as an act of popular self-defense. What influence does this have on civil society, on morals and on daily violence? How are these weapons distributions organized? How is the population trained in their handling and what are the conditions of use?
Thierry Deronne: The militia is not really an army, it is a popular organization which takes on multiple civilian tasks to support the army. There are many seniors there and, above all, women of all ages. This force, which also receives weapons and training, is part of the humanist vision of the Bolivarian revolution. “Cursed is the soldier who turns his weapons against the people”, said Simón Bolivar, quoted by Chávez when weaning the Venezuelan army from the School of Americas, the “school of executioners” based in the United States. Unlike an upper-middle-class army (like the one that overthrew Allende in 1973 in Chile) or NATO armies. The French army participated in 2011, under US command, in the bombing of thousands of Libyan civilians, an operation that has remained unpunished to this day, as have its political leaders (see: https://www.iris-france.org/43223-libye-lheure-dun-bilan-critique/).
As Spanish political scientist Irene Zugasti explains :“In the West, military knowledge and practices are typically concentrated in closed academies, professional forces, and hierarchical structures where access is controlled by elites, who determine who may or may not benefit from this training. The result is a monopoly on military knowledge, even though strategic decisions that affect our lives depend on it, as well as a separation between the civil and military spheres, which distances and marks suitable distances, and those who control both spheres have a clear advantage. The logic of a popular, participatory militia, as in Venezuela, suggests the opposite, both in terms of knowledge and military practice, and in the face of the obvious unease aroused by militarization,a question that a large part of the Western left is wondering about, it seems interesting to say the least, even appropriate, to carefully reread the doctrines and strategies, and not to reserve this knowledge for a restricted circle which has the knowledge… and practices. “ (source: https://venezuelainfos.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/je-mengage-quest-ce-que-la-milice-citoyenne-qui-se-mobilise-au-venezuela/)
” Women organize themselves and also take charge of the municipality and the territories.“
P R: What about the place of women in the Bolivarian revolution, the government and the communes? Are there parallels to be drawn with the communalist experiences of Rojava and Chiapas?
Thierry Deronne: In these 5,000 municipalities, it should be noted that there is a majority of women (80%) at the head of popular organizations. This is a very striking phenomenon. Women organize themselves (there are many single women who have to solve their family’s economy) and also take charge of the municipality and the territories. It’s vital for them. It’s a real women’s revolution, and one that is not only seen in the communities. Thus, in the procurement committees that were set up at the time of the blockade, it is women who carry out the tasks of identifying the most vulnerable people: the elderly, sick people, large families, to give them priority is given to government aid, particularly food parcels.
What is interesting is that this popular feminism is very different from the feminism that we know for example in Europe, which is much more liberal, rather centered on the individual. Here, it is a feminism that is constructed in a bottom-up manner: women are demanding more space in politics. Because, if it is true that in the communes it is almost the “dictatorship of the female proletariat”, they are poorly represented at ministerial level. So there is still work to be done in the fight against patriarchal culture in many political places. But it’s interesting that it comes from popular feminism, which is very combative and wants to move forward. Moreover, the next popular consultation will take place on March 8, 2026,Delcy Rodriguez just announced it… and it’s no coincidence that it’s the day that celebrates women’s rights around the world.
The powerful community of Rojava, as far as I know, similarly links popular feminism to the construction of a new state. Zapatismo seems to me to have been taken over by the anarchist current, and to have locked itself into an extreme culture of “non-power”. For example, the Zapatistas had refused to attend the inauguration of indigenous President Evo Morales, on the grounds that it was… “take power”! Regardless, it is interesting to wonder why, while Zapatismo and Rojava have attracted great interest on the left, the five thousand self-governments remain virtually unknown.
” The problem in the economy was that the private sector had a virtual monopoly on distribution and marketing. When Maduro increased wages, the next day the private sector increased product prices to the same extent. “
P R: The embargo against Venezuela, put in place by the Obama administration and which has continued ever since, has caused a serious economic crisis for the country for years. Under Chávez, there had been attempts to diversify the internal economy to counter dependence on oil. Initiatives to create an automobile industry and build computers in the 2010s were launched. What about today? How does this situation relate to the gray and parallel economy? How are populations (city dwellers, rural dwellers) experiencing the embargo and attempts at US destabilization? What is the place of cooperatives in Venezuela’s economy? What are the obstacles to their deployment?
Thierry Deronne:From 2014, almost overnight, we had a lot of problems, because there were very long queues to get basic products, whether sugar, coffee, milk, etc. The international media enjoyed these images. But, in Venezuela, it was tragic: medicines no longer arrived, like insulin. According to the Washington Center for Policy Studies, 100,000 patients died directly or indirectly from lack of life-saving medications. This shortage of goods, organized by the American authorities, lasted two or three years. Paradoxically, this put our finger on a weakness we had. In Venezuela, it is the private sector that controls economic production. The media, in general, are mostly private, in the same economic logic… and are rather oppositional,which is strange with the image we can have of it. But, in the economy, the problem is that the private sector practically had a monopoly on distribution and marketing. And, indeed, it was he who set the prices, in a way. Which also explains inflation. When Maduro increased wages, the next day the private sector increased product prices to the same extent. So he therefore canceled out the effect of the salary increases.the next day the private sector increased product prices to the same extent. So he therefore canceled out the effect of the salary increases.the next day the private sector increased product prices to the same extent. So he therefore canceled out the effect of the salary increases.
This was the original sin of the Bolivarian revolution. Chávez’s early years did not solve this problem. Chávez had set up social staff training missions. But ultimately, it was the private sector which absorbed this trained workforce, because we had not built our own circuits, which go from producer to consumer. There was no revolutionary market so that this workforce could work elsewhere than in the private sector.
“In reality, faced with the Western blockade, Maduro is one of the rare heads of state not to have given in to the sirens of austerity.”
This is an example of problems we had, but also a learning experience. Now, with the municipalities, we finally have the possibility, for coffee, milk, fish, cocoa, meat, etc., to create from the productive zones a complete system, integral this time, which will until distribution. From now on, in stores, we are starting to see coffee produced in communities for the first time. And these are pesticide-free products, since we develop the principle of agroecology.
And, again, the idea is not to create private companies whose aim would be to make a profit and where production relations would be identical to those governed by the private sector. No, the accounts of these companies are not only constantly examined by the municipal assemblies, but are also reinvested in the municipality’s projects. Because, until now, we have talked about state co-financing, but the idea is that the municipality generates its own income. These production centers, these treatment plants will make it possible to generate profits, which will be reinvested in social projects, whether schools, health centers, etc.
One of the challenges of the Bolivarian revolution is the construction of an agricultural production model that guarantees food security and sovereignty, threatened by Western blockades. It offers an alternative to the destructive and predatory capitalist system of agro-industry. This is an ambitious program, which is based on a large number of traditional experiences throughout the country. These policies are framed by the concepts of agroecology, the fight against mercury gold panning in indigenous communities practiced by Colombian-Brazilian mafias, and the defense of national parks and their biosphere. All this is made possible thanks in particular to the ministries of ecosocialism and indigenous peoples, but also to the ministry of science, who developed an alliance with peasant movements to replace genetically modified seeds with free indigenous seeds. A seed law was adopted in 2015 by the majority of (Chavista) deputies at the suggestion of social movements. With the training and production support of the Landless Movement of Brazil and the FAO, Venezuela is investing in the production of agroecological seeds. A massive and recent example is the Patria Grande del Sur project, which involves the agroecological cultivation of 180,000 hectares in the south of the country. With training and production support from the Landless Movement of Brazil and FAO, Venezuela is investing in agroecological seed production. A massive and recent example is the Patria Grande del Sur project, which involves the agroecological cultivation of 180,000 hectares in the south of the country. With training and production support from the Landless Movement of Brazil and FAO, Venezuela is investing in agroecological seed production. A massive and recent example is the Patria Grande del Sur project, which involves the agroecological cultivation of 180,000 hectares in the south of the country.
Trotskyists have often accused President Maduro of becoming “neoliberal” and of “crushing wages”. Why would he do it? Out of a desire to betray the Bolivarian revolution which had brought workers’ wages to the highest level on the continent? For the pleasure of becoming unpopular? In reality, faced with the Western blockade, Maduro is one of the rare heads of state not to have given in to the sirens of austerity. When it began by periodically increasing wages by 25% or 50%, the private sector reversed these increases by increasing its prices by the same proportion. Faced with the inflationary spiral, Maduro decided to reactivate the national productive apparatus, thanks to multipolar alliances. Not only to move away from oil revenue, but also to replenish the state coffers, in particular by taxing the richest. Venezuela projects industrial growth of 11%. The Central Bank recovers valuable resources to intervene in the foreign exchange market and defend the currency. All this makes it possible to rebuild public services and gradually increase workers’ benefits, while limiting the inflation which canceled them. A Chinese strategy: maintain and strengthen the State as a strategic player in the economy. maintain and strengthen the State as a strategic actor in the economy. maintain and strengthen the State as a strategic actor in the economy.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN) indicates that, over the past four years, Venezuela has experienced the strongest growth (6.5%) in South America. For the first time in 150 years of oil history, the country is close to food sovereignty and produces almost 100% of the food it consumes. During the first quarter of 2025, GDP increased by 9.32% and the country increased its non-oil exports by more than 87% (source: https://www.cepal.org/es/comunicados/la-cepal-senala-que-la-region-registra-cuatro-anos-seguidos-crecimiento-enfrentara-un).
When, in February 2025, Donald Trump revoked Chevron’s license to tighten Venezuela’s economy a little tighter, Maduro responded by expanding the market to Asia. On May 1, 2025, it increases “the allocation against economic warfare” from 90 to 120 dollars for 20 million families. With the $40 food allowance, that’s $160 paid each month as a supplement to the base salary. In the (majority) private sector, the minimum wage is around $200. Important point when studying purchasing power in Venezuela: despite Western sanctions, and unlike neoliberal regimes, public services and basic necessities are very cheap. Subsidized gasoline, the cheapest in the world (0.5 dollars/liter), water, gas, electricity, internet, metro, etc., are available at low prices. Food given monthly by the government to the population in response to the blockade costs only 5% of the market price. Many health centers, as well as public education and culture, operate free of charge.
While in the West a growing number of families are no longer able to make ends meet, Venezuelan workers are flocking to businesses and emprendimientos, which open every day. Caracas is invaded by commercial music, and traffic jams form very early around it malls giants (American-style shopping centers). Thousands of Venezuelan migrants have fled the impoverishment they are experiencing in “host countries” and returned home on public, free airlines, long before the regime’s expulsions and human rights violations Trump.
As independent journalist Craig Murray explains in January 2026 from Caracas: “Do you know what doesn’t exist either? The famous “shortages”. The only thing missing is shortage. There is a shortage of shortages. In Venezuela, nothing is missing. A few weeks ago, I saw a photo on Twitter of a supermarket in Caracas, posted to show that the shelves were extremely well stocked. It elicited hundreds of responses, either to say it was fake or because it was a luxury supermarket reserved for the rich, and the majority of stores were empty. So I made it my mission to go to working-class neighborhoods, to neighborhood grocery stores where ordinary people do their shopping. They were all very well stocked. Not a single empty ray. I also toured the covered and open-air markets, including an incredibly large market with over a hundred stalls offering only items for children’s birthday parties! Everyone happily let me photograph whatever I wanted. It’s not just food. Hardware stores, opticians, clothing and shoe stores, electronic devices, automobile spare parts. Everything is easily accessible. “ (source: https://www.legrandsoir.info/etre-la-bas-au-venezuela.html)
The new media antiphon is: “Traitor Delcy Rodriguez is selling off oil. “ Every decision by Venezuela is repainted by the Empire and the media as a victory. But Washington is only reestablishing the agreements signed with Chávez and Maduro, before excluding itself by decreeing a cruel blockade and more than a thousand illegal sanctions, and giving way to Russia and China. As the interim president announced, the resumption of sales does not entail any discounts and already finances the many social policies of the revolution.
“Here, the people are truly the subject of the revolution. “
P R: What future for municipalities in Venezuela?
Thierry Deronne: As the journalist and former editor-in-chief of Le Monde Diplomatique Maurice Lemoine writes: At the risk of surprising critics of Venezuela, its thousands of popular self-governments are the most ambitious experiment in participatory democracy on the continent – and undoubtedly even well beyond. “ (source: https://venezuelainfos.wordpress.com/2025/01/06/communes-et-communards-du-venezuela-par-maurice-lemoine/)
For the director of the Tricontinental Institute, Indian historian Vijay Prashad: In Venezuela, the communes forged in working-class neighborhoods play a central role in the creation of new ideas and material forces that move society forward. “ For Puerto Rican decolonial sociologist Ramon Grosfoguel: “Perhaps with all the difficulties that the Empire has created in Venezuela, we are losing sight of the historical moment and what it is building in the communes and which does not exist anywhere else in Latin America “. For the international coordinator of the Landless Movement of Brazil, Messilene Gorete: “Sometimes on the left we have very closed patterns about the level of preparation and planning needed to move forward, and that can become an obstacle. Creativity –in a country where people are very spontaneous – is a great virtue of the Bolivarian revolution. Here, the people are truly the subject of the revolution. And the Venezuelan commune is a model that our continent needs. “
It is high time to build bridges between people. Feminist activist Marta Martin Moran, head of Latin America at the Spanish Communist Party, who observed around ten electoral processes in Venezuela, does not hide her enthusiasm about the quarterly consultations by which the population of each municipality chooses the project that must finance the State. The new communalism proposed in France by the Insoumis(es) and theorized by the La Boétie Institute, is the spitting image of what has been happening for ten years in the popular self-governments of Venezuela (see: https://institutlaboetie.fr/pour-un-nouveau-communalisme).
Mexican feminist sociologist Karina Ochoa highlights the central and majority role of women: Anxious to substitute power-for for power-on. “ Like Vanessa Perez, the communard takes her people out of slavery. From a common sense point of view, it is a bit bizarre that a revolution working towards collective emancipation would suddenly engage in the repression of workers. “
P R: Chávez was a figure much loved by the Venezuelan population, and Maduro appears to have a more authoritarian and confrontational relationship with his fellow citizens. From Europe, it is difficult to perceive the reality on the ground. We hear a lot that the Maduro regime is brutal, repressive and regularly practices torture. The UN uses the government’s figures when it cites the very large number of extrajudicial deaths (Michelle Bachelet’s reports mention several thousand deaths in the wars against the cartels, but also a few dozen political deaths), and the opposition speaks of the Fuerza de Acciones Especiales as death squads. What about these repressions? Acts of torture? How is this perceived by the local population?
Thierry Deronne: The first, structural problem with human rights in Venezuela is that the media and the Empire need to make left-wing activists(s) believe that Venezuela is not a democracy. Sources consulted by Bachelet, Amnesty, etc. are right-wing and even far-right NGOs.
Journalist Maurice Lemoine has documented this in several articles: “The human rights industry: an ecosystem of NGOs, “think tanks” (think tanks) financed by US government agencies (USAID, NED, etc.) and European foundations or states. Amnesty International can well argue that it only depends financially on its members (which is generally true), the local organizations on which it relies to establish its reports only survive thanks to their Western donors. Under the cover of the acronym “NGO” opposition organizations very often hide.
First independent UN expert “for the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order” from 2012 to 2018, sent to Venezuela in November-December 2017 by the Human Rights Council of the same UN, Alfred de Zayas tells how, due to his highly asserted independence, he was the victim of moral harassment before, during and after his mission. “Some political NGOs have launched a campaign against me. I was defamed and threatened on Facebook and in tweets (…) A representative of the NGO Provea discredited me before the OAS (…). ”
On Venezuela, Provea is the star news source for Amnesty, Human Right Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights. Multinationals which, like a nebula of Venezuelan organizations called “defense of human rights” – a booming sector allowing great careers – speak out loudly against the death penalty but look the other way when so-called demonstrators ” peaceful” kill police officers. And who systematically ignore the testimonies of organizations not aligned with the right and the extreme right – Fundalatin, Grupo Sures, Red Nacional de Derechos Humanos. “ (source: https://venezuelainfos.wordpress.com/2024/10/10/le-grand-venezuela-circus-et-ses-influenceurs-par-maurice-lemoine/)
The cables of WikiLeaks informed us about the origin and purpose of an NGO like Foro Penal, which already fueled Bachelet’s reports to the UN, those of Amnesty or even today the world press, of Washington Post has El Pais, Liberation or the Huma ” Wikileaks shows that to talk about “political prisoners” in Venezuela, recalls Christian Rodriguez, Foro Penal and many other NGOs received massive funding from Washington (via the NED, USAID, CIA etc…). Worse still: Foro Penal and other NGOs are currently denounced in Venezuela by families of detainees, because they even charge them for inclusion on their lists of “political prisoners”. These detainees are therefore also a business for these NGOs.
In 2024, the NPA, the PS and Ms. Autain were outraged “maduro’s mention of re-education camps”. In reality, the president had proposed that far-right activists or mercenaries guilty of destroying public services or assassinations “blacks therefore Chavistas”, can learn a trade in prison. Their early release, initiated by Maduro in 2025, shows the government’s desire for reconciliation, linked to the powerful Christian culture of forgiveness in Latin America. In the hope that these people recruited by the oligarchs, then revamped by the media as “political prisoners”, do not fall back into violence and play the electoral game, as the moderate right does.
In January 2026, after the kidnapping of “dictator Maduro”, French Trotskyists relied on a CUTV leaflet to denounce so-called “union repression” and, without knowing Venezuela, immediately validated it to dissociate from the demand to release the president and stick to routine anti-imperialism: “ We support the Venezuelan people blablabla. From a common sense point of view, it is a bit bizarre that a revolution working towards collective emancipation would suddenly engage in the repression of workers. The vast majority of their organizations took to the streets to demand the release of the “dictator” (see: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Aq2gwrJ3j/).
The signatory of the leaflet used by the French Trotskyists is Pedro Eusse, member of the former leadership of the Venezuelan CP, a small group which for years has been showering the world with press releases on the “Maduro dictatorship”. This “union” is in fact one more disguise “for the international”, the “local guarantee” available, for each country, to the Trotskyist international.
In addition to biased sources, the leftists’ method of talking about “human rights violations by Maduro” takes up that of the media: attributing any violation to government policy. When legal mafias linked to public or private companies violate human rights, they automatically hold Maduro accountable. They are surfing on the image sedimented for twenty years by the capitalist media. Because if it is true that there are unjustly imprisoned workers in Venezuela, sparking the legitimate struggles of social movements to obtain their release, these human rights violations do not embody government policy.
It is not in Maduro’s Venezuela but in Ignacio Lula da Silva’s Brazil that “ violence in the countryside reached a record level in 2024 and regions where agro-industry is progressing concentrate cases of assassination “. It is not in Maduro’s Venezuela but in Gustavo Petro’s Colombia that, “ in 2024, a social leader was killed every two days – whether human rights activist, trade unionist, Afro-descendant activist, peasant leader, etc. and that “ in 2025, 70 social leaders were assassinated. It is not in Maduro’s Venezuela but in Claudia Sheinbaum’s Mexico that, “ in 2024, 125,000 people are missing and that we regularly discover clandestine mass graves. Should we conclude from this that Lula, Petro or Sheinbaum have a policy of encouraging these human rights violations? (data from Report on rural conflicts in Brazil in 2024, published by the Earth Pastoral Commission (CPT), sources: https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2025/04/23/violencia-no-campo-bate-recorde-na-ultima-decada-e-areas-de-avanco-do-agronegocio-concentram-casos-de-assassinatos/ and https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2025-04-10/en-2024-un-lider-social-fue-asesinado-cada-dos-dias-en-colombia.html, https://www.telesurtv.net/colombia-70-lideres-sociales-asesinados/, https://elpais.com/mexico/2025-03-23/mexico-el-pais-que-desaparece-sin-rastro-de-125000-personas.html)
In fact, Maduro has several times publicly reprimanded law enforcement officers bribed by large landowners to expel peasants and put an end to the assassinations of activists(s) engaged in agrarian reform, frequent during the Chávez era, committed by mercenaries serving large landowners who are enemies of any agrarian reform. Attorney General Tarek William Saab has dismissed hundreds of corrupt judges or trigger-happy police officers. For the Chilean communist mayor Daniel Jadue, victim of lawfare and imprisoned in his country for setting up a network of popular pharmacies: “ The Bolivarian process was able to arrest and convict hundreds of security force agents for human rights violations, for disobeying orders and using firearms during far-right violence, so that in Chile no agent of the security forces who repressed the social movement has been arrested or tried (source: https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2022/04/12/daniel-jadue-ante-maduro-quiero-saludar-a-las-fuerzas-armadas-bolivarianas-a-traves-suyo.shtml).
