Few states in modern history have endured a devastation as deep and systematic as Venezuela's. What was once one of Latin America's most prosperous democracies, became an impoverished country ruled by a criminal structure of power. This collapse was not the product of sanctions or misfortune; it was the deliberate outcome of Chavismo.
The project of power inaugurated by Hugo Chávez in 1999 and continued with greater brutality by Nicolás Maduro, not only destroyed the economy but dismantled the rule of law, corrupted institutions, and militarized civilian life. The result is a narco-tyranny with transnational reach.
Venezuela's current tragedy stems from the regime's theft of the 2024 presidential election when the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner with 51.2% of the vote. Independent counts covering more than 80% of tally sheets showed that opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia won by a wide margin.
When Venezuelans protested, security forces and armed groups responded with brutal repression. Our people voted for freedom but the regime answered with bullets and devastation.
Venezuela's GDP per capita collapsed by more than 80% between 2013 and 2021, one of the worst contractions recorded outside wartime. PDVSA, once an efficient state oil company, was gutted by corruption and political interference. Estimates show that over 23 billion dollars were diverted through PDVSA schemes between 2010 and 2020, enough to rebuild the nation's core public systems. The result was hyperinflation, a collapse of services, and a mass exodus.
From Authoritarianism to Criminal Rule
Chavismo's evolution from competitive authoritarianism to outright tyranny destroyed Venezuela's institutional fabric. The Supreme Court, the National Electoral Council, and the Armed Forces became extensions of party control. After Chávez's death, Maduro pushed the system to its extreme and the security apparatus became a machine of terror.
Corruption became institutionalized. Gold, cocaine, smuggling, and money laundering became structural sources of political financing. More than $4 billion in assets tied to Venezuelan corruption have been seized abroad. Kidnapping, assassinations, and arbitrary arrets became commonplace.
The military elite – the Cartel of the Suns - controls drug trafficking and illegal mining. Venezuela's alliances with Russia, Iran, and China sustain the regime financially. Hezbollah and Latin American cartels use Venezuelan territory for logistics and laundering. The country has become a hub of transnational crime and a threat to regional and international security and stability.
Impact on the Jewish Community
Venezuela's humanitarian collapse is the result of deliberate political design as hunger, disinformation, and poverty are instruments of control. This deliberate impoverishment has produced one of the largest human displacements of the 21st century, as over 9 million people have fled.
This transformation directly impacted Venezuela's Jewish community as well. For over 25 years, Jews in Venezuela have lived under constant hostility. Hugo Chávez openly cursed Israel, embraced antisemitic narratives, and legitimized discourse that portrayed Jews as enemies.
Under Maduro, this hostility deepened: synagogues were attacked, Jewish institutions surveilled, and public antisemitism normalized. In a country aligned with Iran and Hezbollah, being Jewish has increasingly meant living under fear. The erosion of the rule of law has left Venezuela's Jewish community unprotected.
The Iranian Axis and the Terrorist Penetration of Latin America
Understanding Chavismo requires understanding its strategic alignment with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah, Tehran's most powerful proxy. For over two decades, Venezuela has served as the primary platform through which Iran expanded its presence in the Western Hemisphere.
Since 2007, Venezuela and Iran have signed more than 270 bilateral agreements, many of them opaque, covering energy, mining, aviation, banking, and intelligence cooperation. Essentially, they created parallel structures ideal for sanctions evasion and covert operations. Iranian tankers deliver gasoline and diluents to Venezuela despite sanctions. Venezuelan gold from illegal mines finances Iranian procurement operations and joint ventures allow Iran to move funds outside international monitoring systems. Direct flights between Caracas and Tehran facilitate movement of IRGC and Quds Force personnel.
Hezbollah enjoys sanctuary and operational space under Chavismo. Former vice president, interior minister, and now US-sanctioned individual Tareck El Aissami facilitated Hezbollah's penetration of Venezuelan institutions and managed financial networks used for laundering and illicit gold operations. Hezbollah cells operate throughout Venezuela and collaborate with the Cartel of the Suns on cocaine routes that reach West Africa and the Middle East. Venezuelan intelligence services have provided hundreds of IDs to Iranian and Hezbollah operatives.
Using Venezuela, Iran and Hezbollah have gained training grounds for operatives, networks for recruitment and financing, and safe havens for logistical operations across Latin America. Hezbollah-linked structures have been identified across the region, including in the triborder area (TBA), long recognized by Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies as a hotspot for financing terrorism.
For Israel, this architecture mirrors the same structure that enabled the 1992 AMIA bombing and continues to facilitate IRGC and Hezbollah operations globally.
Chavismo’s Historical Responsibility and Legacy
Chavismo will be remembered as the greatest catastrophe in Venezuela's republican history. It merged the brutality of 20nd-century dictatorships with narcotrafficking. Under the guise of revolution, it replaced civic morality with submission and truth with power.
This is not a normal dictatorship but a criminal enterprise under a national flag. It endangers not only Venezuela but regional and international stability and security as it functions as Iran's largest extra-regional platform—providing access, financing, and political protection to organizations directly hostile to Israel and to Western democracies.
Ending Chavismo is necessary for Venezuela's survival and global security. Democratizing Venezuela would stabilize energy markets, curb illicit flows, and restore hope in a region battered by authoritarianism. It would also protect the Venezuelan Jewish community and communities around the world affected by Iran-backed terrorism.
Venezuelans have paid for freedom with their lives. The world now has the moral and strategic obligation to act.
Walter Molina Galdi is a Venezuelan political scientist, writer, and analyst and Luis Peche Arteaga is a Venezuelan international affairs specialist and security analyst.
This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Eitan Fischberger.