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. 

Foreign interest in Venezuelan oil production is high, as Venezuela’s parliament approved a bill opening the oil industry to private sector involvement. The rapid expansion of oil production may push women and girls into sex work, exploitative labor, and illicit economies which frequently emerge near drilling sites. No clear plan yet exists to ensure oil profits benefit social services and individual Venezuelans, nearly 80 percent of whom are living in poverty. 

Political instability could trigger a surge in emigration, with women and girls exposed to sexual violence, exploitation, and trafficking along migration routes. Women are likely to confront heightened vulnerabilities, including barriers to employment in host countries and difficulty accessing essential resources like safe shelter, sanitation, and healthcare. Women-headed households who choose or are forced to return to Venezuela may also be at greater risk of poverty and insecurity.

Years of contraceptive scarcity have curtailed women’s ability to control family size and timing, undermining their educational advancement and workforce participation. Deteriorating medical infrastructure has also forced pregnant women to undertake risky cross-border journeys to access basic maternal care.

Venezuela’s government introduced a new law that would grant amnesty to political prisoners and which could trigger the release of thousands, including at least 80 women prisoners. While some have welcomed this law, rights groups and prisoners have criticized it for being overly narrow while excluding those facing violent charges—which were reportedly arbitrarily imposed—and those who called for foreign armed intervention. Critics also raise concerns that the court system will not neutrally apply the law and that an independent commission should instead supervise amnesty applications. Women family members and activists have been instrumental in demanding the release of those imprisoned and providing reintegration support for those released—including the more than 400 political prisoners already returned home since Maduro’s capture.

In addition to the release of political prisoners, small instances of defiance—including the airing of comments from Maria Corina Machado on television and student protests—have stretched previous limits on freedom of speech. Women are visible in these efforts, including on the frontlines of recent student demonstrations. This possible loosening of restrictions comes after a sharp crackdown in the days immediately following Maduro’s capture.

Women are on the forefront of advocating for democracy and human rights both within Venezuela and in the diaspora. For years, women have made up nearly three-quarters of local community councils, led peaceful protests against the Maduro government, and participated in local peacebuilding efforts. Although they still remain largely marginalized from formal political spaces and face continued threat of repression, women’s leadership and advocacy must play a role in shaping Venezuela’s future.