The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Madurohas urged this week to launch an application through which the people can report “everything they see, everything they hear” 24 hours a day. The initiative was announced during a broadcast on the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), in which the president detailed that the tool will be developed within the VenApp social network.
VenApp was launched in 2022 with the initial goal of receiving complaints about public service problems, such as power outages or water failures, within organized communities.
With this new functionality, which would encompass permanent citizen surveillance, Maduro intends to “expand the organization, awareness, and leadership” through the participation of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), the Communal Militia Units and the Popular Bases of Comprehensive Defense.
“It is a wonderful idea, we have that instrument, we have everything: the organization, the conscience, the leadership, the communal militia units, the Bolivarian Militia, the Bolivarian National Armed Forces with their weapons systems, and many other things,” said the man who lost the last elections.
On the other hand, human rights organizations warn about the risks of VenApp. Amnesty International reported in a report from August last year that the application had already been used to denounce “protesters who question his re-election.”
The document indicates that, after Maduro’s self-proclaimed re-election, an additional functionality was added that allows people who are protesting to be reported.
The United States, meanwhile, illegally bombs boats that it links without evidence to criminal networks.
In Caracas, the Government interprets these movements as a strategy by Washington to justify an intervention or a regime change. According to Maduro, the cooperation of the popular militias and the FANB in this new application aims to reinforce “popular power” in the face of what he describes as “the greatest threat to our nation in the last hundred years.”