Venezuela: Reform Needed for Rights Progress

The useful part

Click to expand Image Petare, a low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela, September 17, 2026. Staff also visited Petare, a low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of Caracas. "Interim President Delcy Rodríguez has overseen a pause to the most overt forms of repression in Venezuela," said Federico Borello, deputy executive director at Human Rights Watch.

How it works

• Human rights activists, opposition leaders, and journalists told Human Rights Watch that they are much freer to carry out their work.
• © 2026 Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC) – Venezuela needs to take urgent measures and carry out institutional reforms to protect people's basic rights, Human Rights Watch said today, following its first...
• Human Rights Watch visited Caracas this week and met with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, other government officials, human rights groups, members of the opposition, journalists, relatives of political...
• "But in this fragile political moment, these gains will only become sustainable with robust institutional reforms and the release of all political prisoners." Rodríguez assumed office following the United...
• Since then, Venezuelan authorities have released hundreds of political prisoners, passed an amnesty law, unblocked some media websites, and announced measures to reform the judiciary.

What to take from it

Some said they have left their hiding places after more than a year or reported for the first time on the arbitrary arrest of their loved ones.

Details worth keeping

On September 18, Venezuelan authorities closed a criminal ca...