Executive Summary
The Report “27J: The Failed Normalization. Municipal Elections and the Closure of Civic Space in Venezuela” covers the period between June 1 and August 31, 2025, with some subsequent events, and gives continuity to the previous reports of Derechos Humanos de Venezuela en Movimiento (Black Book, Red Book, and Gray Book), which fill the absence of an all-encompassing view of democratic deterioration and human rights violations in the country. The report documents how the municipal elections of July 27, 2025, far from signifying a return to institutionality, constituted a new episode of democratic mockery and a deepening of the complex democratic emergency in Venezuela.
Main Findings
1) Failed strategy of institutional normalization:
The early call for municipal and parliamentary elections for 2026 sought to project an image of normality. However, with a 29% real participation (calculated on the Electoral Register), the ruling party obtained 85% of the mayoralties and 83% of the council seats, consolidating a scheme of “elections without choosing.”
2) Drug trafficking as a structural economy:
According to estimates by Transparencia Venezuela and UNODC, about 24% of the world’s cocaine transited through Venezuela in 2023, generating revenues of more than 8.185 billion dollars in 2024. High civilian and military authorities are linked to the so-called Cartel of the Suns, which makes drug trafficking a pillar of political-military power and a factor of systematic human rights violations.
3) United States anti-drug operation in the Caribbean:
The military deployment ordered by Washington in August 2025 produced two attacks against Venezuelan boats, with 14 people dead. These events constitute extrajudicial executions, by depriving the victims of due process. The Venezuelan government responded with Plan Independence 200, which implies the activation of 284 military and militia fronts, consolidating the militarization of social life under the pretext of national defense.
4) Migration crisis and human mobility:
By mid-2025 there were 6.87 million displaced Venezuelans in 17 Latin American countries. An unprecedented phenomenon of reverse migratory flow was documented, with more than 14,000 forced returns from the U.S. and Mexico to the south, in precarious conditions. In the European Union, 49,000 asylum applications in the first half of 2025, but only 0.02% of formal recognition as refugees, which forces millions to subsist with renewable humanitarian permits with less protection capacity.
5) Closure of civic space:
167 violations of freedom of expression between January and August 2025, including censorship, intimidation, and 24 detentions. 18 journalists remained deprived of liberty until September 2025, while 12 human rights defenders were also deprived of liberty. The pattern of forced semiclandestinity was consolidated: parties, unions, and NGOs operate under harassment and threats, without headquarters or public spokespersons, taking precautions to guarantee the freedom and integrity of their members.
6) Arbitrary detentions and hostage diplomacy:
Between June and August 2025, 71 arbitrary detentions were documented, 63% of them against party militants. By September 2025, 1,056 confirmed political prisoners, including 41 foreigners and 48 binational persons used as bargaining chips. During the period under study, every 48 hours a member of a political party in Venezuela was detained.
7) Short-term enforced disappearances:
45% of the arbitrary detentions involved short-term disappearances. 110 active cases were documented by September 2025. This practice seeks to break victims, intimidate families, and sow collective fear.
8) Social protest repressed by fear:
OVCS registered 1,249 protests in the first half of 2025, but with a 48% drop compared to 2024. In July 2025, electoral month, the reduction was 89% compared to the previous year. Social discontent persists, but the population avoids demonstrating due to the risk of violent repression.
Conclusions
The documented facts show that in Venezuela a State policy of systematic repression is maintained, characterized by:
- Electoral mockery to perpetuate a de facto government.
- Capture of the State by illicit economies.
- Militarization of society.
- Closure of civic space and semiclandestinity imposed on social organizations.
- Systematic use of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances as control devices.
- These patterns meet the criteria established by international law to be considered crimes against humanity.
The report concludes with a set of recommendations to the future democratic government —focused on restoring the rule of law, transitional justice, and the reopening of civic space— and to the international community, which it urges to maintain pressure, protection of victims, and long-term accompaniment of the Venezuelan people.
Créditos: Este informe fue realizado por Derechos Humanos de Venezuela en Movimiento. Una denominación genérica mediante la cual, ante la total ausencia de estado de derecho, varias organizaciones nacionales de derechos humanos realizan investigaciones y se posicionan públicamente, protegiendo a sus miembros dentro de Venezuela.
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