I have no doubt regarding the following: the most widespread feeling among Venezuelans, whether they live in Venezuela or dispersed around the world, is one of overwhelming uncertainty. Exhausting because the days and weeks and months go by, and the fundamental questions are not resolved, are not clarified, do not change in the facts, do not have a date. It is as if citizens and families have lost the coordinates that placed them in the Venezuelan nation.
This state of disturbing and contagious restlessness is fueled and worsens daily, as a consequence of the atmosphere of opacity in which Venezuelan society has been plunged. It is not known how decisions are made; nor under what criteria they are determined; nor about what information inputs or who provides them; nor what the news events propose, what they produce. For example, the shelter home of Niño Guerrero is bombed, the United States Government makes a propaganda display, the interim government of Venezuela remains silent or stammers, which, of course, is perverse fuel for national perplexity.
Venezuelan citizens are oblivious and absent from the modifications, for example, that are made to the legal framework of fundamental issues such as oil production, mining production or electricity production.
To this we must still add an unusual and irritating factor: while the nation is experiencing one of the most disastrous and hostile periods, eaten away by inflation, by the worsening of all public services and by the unconcealable and total collapse of the health system, Venezuela has become a kingdom where the economy is absolutely dollarized, a situation from which the small exchanges that make daily life possible do not escape, while the realities of impoverishment deepen minute by minute, Donald Trump, with Inconceivable brazenness, he declares and repeats that Venezuelans are happy and that things in the country are improving rapidly.
In happy Venezuela – as the United States government categorically states – the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (CENDAS) reports this week that the cost of the family basket exceeds 770 dollars. And it is likely that, on Sunday, June 21, when this article will be published, that figure will have been surpassed. This is just one of the examples that could be noted of the grotesque gap between the assumption of a “happy” citizenry and the rapid deterioration that overwhelms the most basic needs of millions and millions of families.
There are two other indicators of enormous significance that I want to remember here today. Although it was published a few weeks ago, it immediately lost visibility in public opinion: I am referring to the report “Radiography of Entrepreneurship in Venezuela”, carried out by the Andrés Bello Catholic University -UCAB- and the Institute of Higher Studies of Administration -IESA-, for the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor -GEM-. It is enough to point out that the Early Entrepreneurial Activity Rate continues to fall irremediably: in 2023 it was 22.7%; in 2024 of 11.7%; in 2025 it fell even more, to 7.7%. The other painful and terrible fact is that the number of 2.7 million entrepreneurs in 2024 was reduced to 1.4 in 2025, that is, 1.3 million abandoned or closed their activity. Should I add anything else?
However, only what has been said so far refutes the claim that during the interim government the economic flow has improved, given that this is its priority, and not politics, which could – so say those interested – affect investments and business development.
The Academy of Political and Social Sciences, in the session corresponding to its 111th anniversary (June 17), has declared it with unequivocal clarity: democracy cannot wait. Getting it back is urgent. The transition It cannot continue to be suspended, because only by starting a real transition process will the institutions be able to recover, guarantee the independence and professionalism of public powers, put an end to political prisoners and the false persecution files that are maintained against exiles, political prisoners and other tens of thousands of Venezuelans who live outside the borders.
Starting a transition process is not resolved with a declaration of intentions or with recurring verbiage and without a ground wire. They are specific facts: setting a date for the elections; change the CNE board of directors for one that is balanced, decent, technical and that guarantees transparent and fair elections; it is the total release of political prisoners (how long will we have to repeat that this admits of no further delay?); It is the elimination of entities dedicated to espionage, repression and torture; It is the restitution of the political parties that the Chavista judicial system destroyed; It is also the restitution of guarantees such as the right to assembly, to protest, to circulate, to express oneself, to be informed and to give an opinion without restrictions.
When the state of political freedoms in Venezuela today is examined, the diagnosis is clear: there is no progress. There is no democratic debate, there is no political opening, the State media continue to be kidnapped by the regime and its interim government. The police forces and intelligence services continue spying, fabricating files, and following social and political leaders. The siege and blackmail of political prisoners – military and civilian – and their families continues. The judges, the main extortionists, continue with their dirty racket, without anything or anyone to prevent or punish them.
What we have, as Laureano Márquez said at an event we met in Madrid, is “a little breath.” No more. But that “little breath” is nothing more than that: nothing that brings us closer or accelerates the path towards the transition.
