Venezuela

Venezuela’s security deterioration has disproportionately affected women and girls, who face escalating gender-based violence amid state collapse and impunity. The economic crisis has driven increased rates of sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and survival sex work, particularly among Venezuelan migrants and internally displaced populations, while maternal mortality has surged due to healthcare system breakdown. Armed non-state actors—including militias and organized criminal gangs—exercise territorial control in border regions and urban areas, subjecting women and girls to systematic sexual violence, forced recruitment, and exploitation with minimal state protection or justice mechanisms available to survivors. Colombian armed groups, including the National Liberation Army, also operate in numerous Venezuelan states. Despite notable female leaders, women lack comprehensive inclusion throughout Venezuela’s political system. However, women are vital grassroots and community leaders, oftentimes while juggling employment and caregiving responsibilities. Women have also been instrumental to pro-democracy movements, comprising more than half of electoral witnesses at polling stations during the 2024 election. Women-led organizations are also on the frontlines of humanitarian response, human rights protection, and advocacy both at home and from exile. 

Given political precarity, women and girls are likely to encounter an increasingly volatile and unsafe environment with little support and insufficient humanitarian aid. Uncertainty and possible economic blockages risk further elevating food prices and worsening poverty—outcomes which would disproportionately harm women-headed households. Following a surge in repression immediately following Maduro’s capture, continued arrests and intimidation are likely to further undermine women’s safety and wellbeing. Conflict may also increase as armed actors—including Venezuelan paramilitaries referred to as colectivos, gangs, and Colombian armed groups—become emboldened. Competition over territory and control over illicit economies remains a particular threat to women and girls in borderland areas. These conditions may push more women and girls to flee regardless of the reduction in displacement resources following foreign aid cuts. Despite these challenges, women continue to respond by taking up roles as breadwinners, community leaders, and activists. 

Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026, killing thousands and leaving many more missing or displaced. Poorer and harder-to-reach areas were among the hardest hit, compounding pre-existing socio-economic challenges. As the country grapples with the devastation and widespread displacement, women and girls are at heightened risk of trafficking, exploitation, and abuse.

Delays in rescue and relief efforts have fueled public anger toward the Venezuelan government and exposed longstanding weaknesses in disaster preparedness and state capacity. The crisis risks undermining Venezuela’s fragile democratic transition, raising concerns that the regime will prioritize maintaining control over advancing promised reforms. Heightened unrest risks triggering renewed repression given the history of violent crackdowns on rights defenders and dissidents, including the continued exile of prominent opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Damage to hospitals and clinics has severely impacted Venezuela’s already under-resourced healthcare system, now overwhelmed by thousands in need of urgent medical attention. Prior to the earthquakes, shortages of medical supplies and personnel and limited maternal and reproductive health services contributed to significant barriers to accessing care, particularly for women and girls. At the same time, widespread displacement is contributing to the spread of infectious diseases in overcrowded shelters and communities, further straining limited resources. As healthcare resources are redirected toward emergency services, women and girls are likely to face growing barriers to accessing prenatal, maternal, sexual, and reproductive health services, leaving pregnant women, survivors of gender-based violence, and women with chronic health conditions especially vulnerable.

Venezuela’s efforts to open its oil sector to foreign investment and expand production—including new deals with US companies—have raised governance and protection concerns amid the promise of economic progress. Rapid expansion in extractive industries risks fueling informal and exploitative labor, including in illicit economies which frequently emerge near drilling sites. At the same time, environmental degradation linked to oil production risks further undermining agricultural livelihoods and access to clean water, compounding existing vulnerabilities. These dynamics are unfolding in a context of widespread poverty and food insecurity; without clear safeguards, oil expansion risks reinforcing gendered inequalities and limiting the potential for economic gains to translate into inclusive recovery.

Women-led civil society organizations are playing a central role in Venezuela’s earthquake relief efforts, delivering lifesaving assistance and reaching communities affected by the disaster amid slow government response. As these organizations fill critical gaps in emergency response, their frontline role highlights the importance of women’s leadership in humanitarian action and underscores the need for supporting locally led efforts and strengthening the capacity, sustainability, and decision-making power of women’s organizations.