Andres Velasquez did not stand out enough to become another government critic who will end up in prison after the 2024 presidential elections in Venezuela.
The former governor, who toured Venezuela campaigning for an opponent to then-President Nicolas Maduro in disputed elections, grew a thick beard, sent his children into exile and avoided public gatherings that could expose him to arrest.
But after the United States toppled Maduro, he mustered the courage to speak out. First, on January 19, Velázquez, with a new look, appeared in a video in which he expressed support for Maduro's removal from power and called for new elections. Then, a few days later, he went a step further, recording a short video outside the notorious El Helicoide prison in the capital, Caracas, demanding the release of all political prisoners.
"We must dismantle the entire repressive apparatus in the hands of the state. Venezuela will be free!" Velásquez said in the video.
Velázquez is not alone. Since Maduro’s ouster, more prominent critics have begun to come out of hiding to test the limits of political speech after years of self-imposed silence driven by fear. Ordinary Venezuelans are also breaking free from restraint: families of imprisoned activists are protesting outside prisons, and those who have been released are defying the speech bans that are usually imposed as a condition of release. Meanwhile, the media is starting to reopen its airwaves to critical voices that were ostracized in previous years.
Glasnost in Venezuela?
Velázquez likened the political liberalization, though still in its infancy, to glasnost, alluding to the period of reform and freer public debate that preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union. But unlike that and other democratic openings, this is taking place almost entirely under the tutelage of the Donald Trump administration, which has used a combination of financial incentives and threats of additional military strikes to implement the president’s seemingly improbable promise to “govern” Venezuela from Washington.
The ultimate goal of the Trump administration's move remains unclear. While the White House has praised Acting President Delcy Rodriguez's willingness to work with the United States to unlock Venezuela's vast oil reserves, combat criminal networks, and counter the influence of U.S. adversaries Iran and Russia, opponents of the government fear that demands for elections and the restoration of democracy could be delayed indefinitely.
Last week, Rodriguez, a longtime Maduro ally, announced plans for a general amnesty that could lead to the release of hundreds of opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists imprisoned for political reasons. She also announced the closure of El Helicoidea, promising to transform the spiral building, a futuristic architectural icon that has become a symbol of Maduro’s prisons, into a sports and cultural complex for police and residents of the surrounding hilltop slums.
"May this law serve to heal the wounds left by political confrontation fueled by violence and extremism," she said at an event surrounded by leading figures from the ruling party.
Pedro Vaka, chief expert on freedom of expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the region's most respected rights watchdog, said the few "crumbs" offered by the Rodriguez administration are no substitute for an independent judiciary and law enforcement.
“The civic space in Venezuela remains a desert,” said Vaka, who has been trying for months to get permission from Venezuelan authorities to lead a field assessment of the situation in the country. “The rare critical voices that are emerging are like seeds breaking through hardened soil - they persist not because freedom exists, but because repression has temporarily receded, although it remains pervasive. Let’s be clear: this does not mark a democratic turnaround,” he added.
Self-censorship deepened after the 2024 elections.
Political pluralism in Venezuela has been severely undermined since Maduro took over the presidency from the late Hugo Chavez in 2013. Anti-government protests and episodes of civil unrest have been regularly suppressed by security forces whose loyalty to the self-proclaimed socialist leader has been unwavering, though powerless in the face of a vastly superior US military.
Self-censorship deepened further after the July 2024 elections, when Maduro launched a wave of repression marked by thousands of arbitrary arrests, dismissing evidence that he had lost to opposition candidate Edmund Gonzalez by more than two to one in a disputed vote.
Dissidents retreated underground, and the few remaining independent media outlets further tempered their already cautious reporting for fear of being shut down.
In an interview with the AP, Velázquez said he would continue to push the boundaries of permitted political activity, but remained cautious because the state's repressive apparatus remains fully under the control of Rodriguez and her allies.
"We must continue to reclaim lost ground, to challenge the authorities. An opportunity has opened up and we must not allow that door to close again. But the biggest obstacle we must overcome is fear," he said.
In the coming weeks, he plans to hold a public rally with other opponents of the government who have recently come out of hiding. Among them is Delsa Solorzano, a former lawmaker and a prominent figure in the opposition's 2024 presidential campaign. Solorzano made her first public appearance last week at a rare press conference for her party, tearfully describing how she had to take vitamin D due to a lack of sunlight while living underground.
"I didn't go into hiding because I committed a crime, but because the fight for freedom here has become extremely risky - for life, freedom and safety," said Solorsano.
Rodriguez's allies resist liberalization.
And the media started pumping their muscles
Venevisión, which like most private networks in recent years has avoided critical reporting on the government, has reopened its programming to anti-regime voices, following every move of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in Washington since Maduro's capture.
Meanwhile, Globovision, the country's largest private broadcaster, whose owner is under US sanctions for ties to Maduro, has invited back renowned commentator Vladimir Villegas for the first time in years.
Villegas has earned a reputation for skillfully navigating Venezuela's already limited media landscape, keeping the government's most vocal opponents off his influential political show. However, the show was abruptly canceled in 2020 when Villegas criticized Maduro for forcing DirecTV to broadcast a state-run channel in violation of U.S. sanctions, forcing the satellite operator, along with a number of international news channels, to leave the country.
Rodriguez herself has not embraced a substantive public debate on the country's problems, except for announcing the formation of an advisory commission for political coexistence, which will be headed by Vladimir Villegas' brother, Minister of Culture Ernesto Villegas.
But already some of its allies seem determined to stifle any criticism. Authorities, meanwhile, have yet to fully restore access to the social network X, which Maduro blocked after its owner, billionaire Elon Musk, accused him of vote-rigging in the 2024 elections.
In response to Venevision's reporting on Machado's meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello - a government hardliner who is wanted by the US on drug trafficking charges - accused the media of participating in the Nobel Prize winner's conspiracy to cause chaos in Venezuela.
"Without media attention, her fame fades. Without headlines in the newspapers, she simply disappears," Cabello said on state television, singling out Venevision's reporting in particular.
But even on state television, a bastion of pro-government propaganda and ideological control, cracks began to appear.
An example of this is Rodriguez’s recent visit to a university campus in Caracas, where she was greeted by a small group of student protesters. Although state television made no mention of the students’ demands, the scene itself, which shows Rodriguez peacefully separating from her security to “exchange ideas” with what the broadcaster called activists from “extremist parties,” would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago.
Under Maduro, even the mildest criticism was suppressed on state television, and broadcasts of his frequent rallies and public events stopped airing live after a series of unpleasant incidents, including a visit to Margarita Island in 2016, when he was chased away by angry protesters banging pots and pans.
Inspiration from the suffering of imprisoned activists
While the future of a possible democratic transition in Venezuela remains uncertain, opponents of the government hope that Rodriguez is unleashing forces she can no longer control. In the meantime, they continue to draw inspiration from those who have experienced repression firsthand.
Journalist and political activist Carlos Julio Rojas spent 638 days in a Venezuelan prison, where he says he, like dozens of other prisoners, was repeatedly handcuffed, deprived of sunlight and locked in a cramped cell without a bed, sometimes for weeks at a time.
When he was released last month as part of a goodwill gesture announced by Rodriguez, he says he was ordered never to speak about the abuse.
His imposed silence lasted barely 15 days.
"For me, silence meant I was still in prison. Not speaking was a form of torture. That's why today I decided to take off my gag and speak out," said Rojas, who has been accused, without evidence, of participating in a plot to assassinate Maduro in 2024.
prepared by: S. STRUGAR
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