Faced with the prospect of armed conflict with the United States, Venezuela’s government seems to be encouraging citizens to spy on each other by using a revamped mobile application to report suspicious people or activities.
The software, called VenApp, was originally launched by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in 2022 as a hybrid application, integrating a messaging service with a helpline for people to report issues with utility services, such as power outages and water disruptions.
Now it is being used as a tool for Venezuelans to inform the government of anything that it might consider seditious or disloyal, raising alarm among Maduro opponents and human rights groups about a possible surge in political detentions.
“This initiative represents a serious concern for privacy, freedom of expression, and security, because it promotes a system of social vigilance and the militarization of public order,” the online activist group Venezuela Sin Filtro wrote in a statement.
Adding to the government’s anxieties that the United States may be pursuing “regime change” in the South American nation, the US military is deploying warships, fighter jets, and up to 10,000 troops to the southern Caribbean Sea, allegedly to combat drug traffickers.
The operations, which the Trump administration claims have killed more than 60 alleged “narcoterrorists,” have been criticized by the United Nations and some US lawmakers, as well as several governments in the region. They are concerned about the abuse of presidential powers in committing what they say are extrajudicial killings without disclosing any proof of guilt.
Maduro has ruled Venezuela with an iron fist since 2013 and has clung to power despite an apparently decisive loss in the 2024 presidential election. The country’s electoral authority, stacked with Maduro sympathizers, proclaimed him the winner amid allegations of vote-rigging, which the government denied.
