2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Results
However, according to the Reuters report, both Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz and Luis Rondon, one of the CNE's five directors, spoke out against the results. "I'm absolutely sure that those numbers are not correct," said Ortega. "For the first time since I took up this commitment to the country, I cannot guarantee the consistency or veracity of the results offered," said Rondon.


2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Results
Independent analysts voiced that the turnout was lower than what the CNE stated – somewhere between 11.3% and 21.0% – with Ratio-Ucab estimating that there were 2.2 million participants, Delphos estimating 3.1 million voters, and Torino Capital estimating 3,111,807 to 4,086,309 voters, settling at 3.6 million voters.


2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Results
The 2017 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela was officially sworn in on 4 August 2017.


2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Analysis, Journalists
Andrés Oppenheimer considers that the proposal would allow Maduro to abolish all the democratic institutions in Venezuela, in a similar process to the 1976 Constitution of Cuba.


2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Analysis, Journalists
Mariana Zuñiga and Nick Miroff stated in The Washington Post:


2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Analysis, Journalists
When your house is burning and smack in the path of a Category 5 hurricane, it's probably not the best time to tear down the frame and jackhammer the foundation. But those are the home improvement plans of President Nicolás Maduro, who is moving forward with a provocative attempt to rewrite Venezuela's constitution despite the country's descent into political and economic catastrophe.


2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Analysis, Officials
Danilo Antonio Mojica Monsalvo, the magistrate of the Social Cassation Chamber of the TSJ, announced his disagreement with President Maduro's Constituent Assembly on 23 May 2017, stating that without a popular referendum voting on the assembly, the move would be "spurious ... a legal metaphor to describe what is done outside the Constitution". Another TSJ judge, Marisela Godoy, spoke out against Maduro's proposal the same day, stating "At this moment I support, without any fear, the attorney general (Luisa Ortega Díaz), who is not any official" and that if she were to be criticized by the government, she "does not care".


2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election, Analysis, Officials
Gerardo Blyde, mayor of Baruta municipality, pointed out that, although the article 347 does authorize the proposal by President Maduro, it should have been ratified by a public referendum.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack
On 5 July 2017, colectivos and supporters of President Nicolás Maduro stormed the Palacio Federal Legislativo on the Independence Day of Venezuela, assaulting many members of the opposition-led National Assembly. At least 12 opposition legislators and their staff were injured as a result of the attack.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Series of events, Ceremony
The day began with the National Assembly attempting to commemorate the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence. At approximately 8:20am VST, Vice President Tareck El Aissami, Interior Minister Néstor Reverol and Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino López unexpectedly arrived at the Palacio Federal Legislativo with government supporters dressed in red, interrupting the days events. El Aissami delivered a speech calling on supporters to march to the Palacio Federal Legislativo and "to forge independence in the streets".


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Series of events, Ceremony
We are in the facilities of a state power that has been kidnapped by the same oligarchy that betrayed Bolívar and his cause ... I invite the people ... to come ... to the hemicycle and assume a proclamation to lead the future of the country


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Series of events, Ceremony
After speaking for over fifteen minutes and calling for supporters to march to the palace, El Aissami left the area with his entourage.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Series of events, Attack
By 9:18am VST, a calm had returned to the National Assembly as the lawmakers retreated into the Palacio Federal Legislativo. Speaker of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, spoke a half hour later calling for the Venezuelan armed forces to protect the will of the Venezuelan people and not that of a political party.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Series of events, Attack
Government supporters began to congregate at the entrances of the Palacio Federal Legislativo at about 10:40am VST and at 11:45am VST, National Guardsmen stationed at the legislative palace allowed the crowds to enter the National Assembly facility.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Series of events, Attack
Hundreds of people belonging to colectivos and pro-government groups then stormed the National Assembly armed with pipes, firearms and fireworks, proceeding to fire guns and tear gas throughout the area. By 1:30pm VST, colectivos were inside of the legislative palace assaulting individuals without any intervention from the National Guard. Some legislators made futile attempts to defend themselves from the government groups with fire extinguishers, Opposition lawmakers were beaten with objects and while some were attacked while lying defenseless on the ground. After hours of brawling occurred and many opposition officials were beaten, the National Guard finally withdrew pro-government groups from the facility.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Series of events, Attack
Following the attack, the walls and floors of the Palacio Federal Legislativo were left stained with the blood of opposition lawmakers. However, government supporters remained outside of the Palacio Federal Legislativo for hours, assaulting legislators as they left with the National Guard showing indifference to the pro-government attacks. By 7:10pm, authorities began to escort lawmakers to their vehicles and within twenty minutes, 90% of legislators were evacuated from the area, though journalists and photographers had to escape by their own will under a hail of bottles, fireworks and stones. As a result of the attack, at least 12 opposition officials and their staff were reported to be injured.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Aftermath, Shortage of medical supplies
Following the attack, individuals injured could not receive treatment due to the shortage of medical supplies in the country and because the Bolivarian government prohibited the National Assembly from having proper medical insurance. Many asked for donations of gauze, bandages, antibiotics, antiseptics, IV solutions and painkillers.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Response, Domestic
President Nicolás Maduro condemned the attack, describing it as a "strange event" and called for an investigation while National Assembly speaker Julio Borges described Maduro's remarks as "hypocritical", stating that "it was their armed groups that assaulted and attacked us".


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Response, International response, Governments
The governments of Mexico and Panama condemned the assault on the National Assembly.


2017 Venezuelan National Assembly attack, Response, International response, Supranational bodies
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations condemned the attack.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season
The 2017 Primera División season was the 36th professional season of Venezuela's top-flight football league. Zamora were the defending champions, but did not qualify to the Serie Final, after being eliminated by Monagas in the quarter-finals of the Torneo Apertura and by Deportivo Lara in the quarter-finals of the Torneo Clausura.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season
Monagas were the champions, defeating Deportivo Lara in the Serie Final, 2–1 on aggregate.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Teams, Stadia and locations
a Trujillanos played the matchday 11 of the Torneo Clausura (against Deportivo Lara) at the Estadio José Pachencho Romero in Maracaibo, after the Estadio José Alberto Pérez in Valera was suspended due to crowd disturbances in the Copa Venezuela round of 16 second leg against Zulia.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Torneo Apertura
The Torneo Apertura was the first tournament of the season. The regular season started on 28 January and finished on 21 May 2017.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Torneo Apertura, Awards, Team of the Tournament
The Asociación FUTVE chose the team of the Torneo Apertura.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Torneo Apertura, Awards, Player of the Tournament
The best player of Torneo Apertura was Monagas winger Anthony Blondell, chosen by the Asociación FUTVE.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Torneo Clausura
The Torneo Clausura was the second tournament of the season. The regular season started on 15 July and finished on 29 October 2017.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Torneo Clausura, Awards, Team of the Tournament
The Asociación FUTVE chose the team of the Torneo Clausura.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Torneo Clausura, Awards, Player of the Tournament
The best player of Torneo Clausura was Deportivo Lara goalkeeper Carlos Salazar, chosen by the Asociación FUTVE.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Serie Final
The Serie Final is held between the champions of the Torneo Apertura and the Torneo Clausura to determine the champions of the season. The draw to determine the order of the legs was held on 4 December 2017.


2017 Venezuelan Primera División season, Awards, Annual awards, Player of the Year
The best player of the 2017 season was Monagas forward Anthony Blondell, chosen by the Asociación FUTVE.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis
On 29 March 2017, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela took over legislative powers of the National Assembly. The Tribunal, mainly supporters of President Nicolás Maduro, also restricted the immunity granted to the Assembly's members, who mostly belonged to the opposition.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis
The dissolution was considered by the opposition to be a "coup" while the Organization of American States (OAS) termed the action a "self-coup". The decision was condemned by some media outlets with analysts characterizing the move as a turn towards authoritarianism and one-man rule.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis
Politicians throughout the Americas, as well as leaders from the United Nations, expressed concern with the decision and demanded its reversal, though the Venezuelan government stated no coup had taken place and instead justified its decision as a reaction to "coup-like actions" allegedly performed by the opposition.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis
On 1 April 2017, the TSJ partially reversed its decision, thereby reinstating the powers of the National Assembly. Public dissatisfaction with the decision persisted however, with the strengthening of the protests that year "into the most combative since a wave of unrest in 2014" resulting from the crisis.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Background
Following the death of President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela faced a severe socioeconomic crisis during the Presidency of his successor, President Nicolás Maduro, as a result of their policies. Due to the state's high levels of urban violence, inflation, and chronic shortages of basic goods attributed to economic policies such as strict price controls, civil insurrection in Venezuela culminated in the 2014–17 protests. Protests occurred over the years, with demonstrations occurring in various intensities depending on the crises Venezuelans were facing at the time and the perceived threat of being repressed by authorities.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Background
The discontent with the United Socialist Government saw the opposition being elected to hold the majority in the National Assembly for the first time since 1999 following the 2015 Parliamentary Election. As a result of that election, the lame duck National Assembly consisting of United Socialist officials filled the Venezuelan Supreme Court with allies. Into early 2016, the Supreme Court alleged that voting irregularities occurred in the 2015 Parliamentary Elections and stripped four Assembly members of their seats, preventing an opposition supermajority in the National Assembly which would be able to challenge President Maduro.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Background
The Assembly nevertheless swore in 3 of the members in question, in response to which the Supreme Court ruled that the Assembly was in contempt of court and in violation of the constitutional order. The TSJ court then began to approve multiple actions performed by Maduro and granted him more powers.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Background
After facing years of crisis, the Venezuelan opposition pursued a recall referendum against President Maduro, presenting a petition to the National Electoral Council (CNE) on 2 May 2016. By August 2016, the momentum to recall President Maduro appeared to be progressing, with the Council setting a date for the second phase of collecting signatures, though it made the schedule strenuous, stretching the process into 2017 which made it impossible for the opposition to activate new Presidential Elections. On 21 October 2016, the Council suspended the referendum only days before preliminary signature-gatherings were to be held. The Council blamed alleged voter fraud as the reason for the cancellation of the referendum. International observers criticized the move, stating that CNE's decision made Maduro look as if he were seeking to rule as a dictator.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Background
Days after the recall movement was cancelled, 1.2 million Venezuelans protested throughout the country against the move, demanding President Maduro to leave office, with Caracas protests remaining calm while protests in other federal states resulted in clashes between demonstrators and authorities, leaving one policeman dead, 120 injured and 147 arrested. That day the opposition gave President Maduro a deadline of 3 November 2016 to hold elections, with opposition leader, Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles stating, "Today we are giving a deadline to the Government. I tell the coward who is in Miraflores ... that on 3 November the Venezuelan people are coming to Caracas because we are going to Miraflores".


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Background
Days later on 1 November 2016, then National Assembly President and opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup announced the cancellation of 3 November march to the Miraflores presidential palace, with Vatican-led dialogue between the opposition and the government beginning. By 7 December 2016, dialogue halted between the two and two months later on 13 January 2017 after talks stalled, the Vatican officially pulled out of the dialogue. Further protests were much smaller due to the fear of repression, with the opposition organizing surprise protests instead of organized mass marches.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Background
Other actions by President Maduro and his Bolivarian officials included a 7 February 2017 meeting which announced the creation of the Great Socialist Justice Mission which had the goal of establishing "a great alliance between the three powers, the judiciary, the citizen and the executive", with Maduro stating that "we have been fortunate to see how the judicial power has been growing and perfecting, carrying a doctrine so complete with the constitution of 1999" while stating that the opposition-led National Assembly "took power not for the majority not for the people but for themselves".


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events
The Court ruled that the National Assembly was "in a situation of contempt", because of the aforementioned rulings against the election of some of its members. It stripped the Assembly of legislative powers, and took those powers for itself; which meant that the Court might have been able to create laws. The court did not indicate if or when it might hand power back. A statement issued by the court however stated that it would retain the powers of the legislature until the "contempt situation persists and the National Assembly actions are invalidated".


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events
The action transferred powers from the Assembly, which had an opposition majority since January 2016, to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which has a majority of government loyalists. The ruling also granted President Maduro the power to suspend elections, imprison opposition deputies and withdraw Venezuela from the Organization of American States.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Ruling Nº 156
On the basis of the declared unconstitutional omission, this Constitutional Chamber resolves that there is no impediment for the National Executive to establish joint ventures in the spirit established in Article 33 of the Organic Hydrocarbons Law, for which purpose the National Executive, by body of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, shall inform to this Chamber of all the pertinent circumstances to that constitution and conditions, including the special advantages envisaged in favor of the Republic. Any subsequent modification of the conditions shall be reported to this Chamber, following a favorable report from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Ruling Nº 156
Resolving the interpretation requested of Article 33 of the current Organic Hydrocarbons Law, the Chamber decides that the National Assembly, acting de facto, can not modify the proposed conditions or seek to establish other conditions.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Ruling Nº 156
On the basis of a state of emergency, the Head of State may amend the rule to be interpreted by means of a reform, in accordance with the jurisprudence of this High Court (see Ruling Nº 155 of 28 March 2017).


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Reactions to the judicial ruling
The move was denounced by the opposition, with Assembly President Julio Borges making statements on 30 March describing the action as a coup d'état by President Nicolás Maduro. Borges called on the military to intervene, stating that "they cannot remain silent in the face of the violation of the Constitution" and "that FAN officers are also going through drama caused by the high cost of life. We want to make a call on them to be the first guardians of democracy and the Venezuelan Constitution and that they become part of the solution." Finally, Borges called on international attention to the ruling and called for new protests saying "there is fear, there is repression, but it is time to stand up."


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Reactions to the judicial ruling
Hours later, opposition officials gathered outside of the TSJ headquarters and were attacked by pro-government paramilitary groups called colectivos and National Guard troops. Deputy Juan Requesens was attacked by colectivo forces while Carlos Paparoni was pushed to the concrete by a National Guardsman. A journalist for the National Assembly's broadcast team, El Capitolio TV was struck in the head and required stitches. Government supporters and authorities also attempted to take recording devices away from the media on the scene.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Reactions to the judicial ruling
In a rare break of ranks, on 31 March 2017, pro-government Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz stated on Venezuelan state television while holding a copy of the 1999 Constitution that the TSJ's ruling was a "rupture of constitutional order" and that it was her "duty to inform my country of my deep concern over these events," with her audience responding with a lengthy applause. Borges, the Assembly President, stated that officials should follow Ortega's example and called on the military "to obey the orders of your conscience." Meanwhile, protesters were repressed by the National Guard armed with buckshot and batons. Many demonstrators were arrested, with the media being caught in the assault, having their cameras confiscated while one female reporter of Caracol Radio was singled out by a group of troops and beaten.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Reactions to the judicial ruling
On 4 April 2017, opposition called for a march from Plaza Venezuela to the National Assembly with thousands of Venezuelans participating, though access to the meeting point was quickly blocked by the Bolivarian National Guard. Twelve subway stations were closed. Pro -government colectivos blocked opposition marches and fired weapons at protesters, with demonstrations resulting in the injuries of about 42 individuals, including seven police officers, while over 50 people were arrested.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Reactions to the judicial ruling
In reporting the story, The New York Times noted that in the previous few months Maduro had been swiftly consolidating power, and the Assembly was considered by many to be the sole remaining counterbalance to the President's control. It also noted that following such moves by the government, "many now describe as not just an authoritarian regime, but an outright dictatorship." Fox News also noted that following the sporadic protests that did not produce results, with the government already consolidating itself within the military and politically by canceling elections, calls for further demonstrations as well as the intervention of the armed forces were futile.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Reversal of decisions
Following the rare criticism from Attorney General Ortega, an inner-circle official, Maduro ordered a review of the TSJ's decision regarding the National Assembly. One day later, the Tribunal reversed that particular order, thereby reinstating the powers of the Assembly. The opposition, however, dismissed the backtracking and called on Venezuelans "to take to the streets" against what they called an attempted coup, arguing that the moves proved that Maduro controlled the judiciary and therefore separation of powers did not exist in the republic. Protests in the country continued after the reversal with the opposition demanding early elections.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Proceedings against TSJ
Following the reversal of the rulings by the TSJ, the National Assembly prepared proceeding against the court, accusing the court of not being separated from the executive, though Reuters noted that "the move by the opposition-led congress would only be symbolic because it remains powerless".


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Proceedings against TSJ
Following the criticism of the TSJ's ruling by Attorney General Ortega, there were calls for her to be involved in the so-called Republican Moral Council, made up of the Prosecutor's Office, the Office of the Comptroller and the Office of the Ombudsman, which had the right to remove members of the TSJ according to the Venezuelan constitution. During protests on 4 April, opposition leaders announced that they would pursue the removal of the seven judges who signed the rulings against the National Assembly.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Judicial events, Proceedings against TSJ
On 7 April, Ombudsman Tarek William Saab announced the decision of the Republican Moral Council decision on the TSJ judges, stating that he and Comptroller Manuel Galindo had rejected the request to endorse proceedings against the TSJ, whereas Attorney General Ortega had dissented.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Constitutional assembly
Today, on May 1, I announce that I will use my presidential privileges as constitutional head of state in accordance with article 347, to convene the original constituent power so that the working class and the people can call a national constituent assembly.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Constitutional assembly, Proposal
On 1 May 2017 following a month of protests that resulted in at least 29 dead, Maduro called for a Constitutional Assembly that would draft a new constitution that would replace the 1999 Venezuela Constitution. He invoked Article 347, and stated that his call for a new constitution was necessary to counter the actions of the opposition. Critics suspected that the members of the Constitutional Assembly would not be elected in open elections, but selected from social organizations loyal to Maduro. The proposal would be an alternative way to close the National Assembly. It would also allow him to stay in power during the interregnum, as the process would take at least two years.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Constitutional assembly, Proposal
Diosdado Cabello pointed that the new constitution would prevent a politician similar to the Argentine Mauricio Macri from ever becoming president of Venezuela. Macri was elected president in the 2015 presidential elections, ending the 12-years terms of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, longtime allies of both Chávez and Maduro.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Constitutional assembly, Proposal
The MUD started a common front for all the people in Venezuela that oppose the amendment. It is composed by the MUD, the Marea Socialista, minor parties without representatives in the Assembly (such as the marxists Bandera Roja), disenchanted chavistas, the Catholic Church, universities, human rights organizations, lawyers and artists. Eustoquio Contreras is the only deputy that defected from Maduro and opposed the amendment. Luis Salamanca, former rector of the National Electoral Council, considers that the front may not be capable to stop Maduro, as he is unwilling to negotiate the proposal.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Constitutional assembly, Approval
On 22 May, the Republican Moral Council – which the opposition hoped would establish proceedings against TSJ judges – shared their approval of the National Constitutional Assembly despite the absence of Attorney General Ortega, with Ombudsman Tarek William Saab stating that "The call to the National Constituent Assembly is a constitutional exit to the political situation that the country is living, in order to foster dialogue and coexistence of the country".


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Constitutional assembly, Approval
The next day on 23 May, Danilo Antonio Mojica Monsalvo, the magistrate of the Social Cassation Chamber of the TSJ announced his disagreement with President Maduro's Constitutional Assembly, stating that without a popular referendum voting on the assembly, the move would be "spurious ... a legal metaphor to describe what is done outside the Constitution". Another TSJ judge, Marisela Godoy, spoke out against Maduro's proposal, stating "At this moment I support, without any fear, the attorney general (Luisa Ortega Díaz), who is not any official" and that if she were to be criticized by the government, she "does not care". However, the Constitutional assembly proposal was accepted by the CNE, with an election slated for 10 July 2017.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Constitutional assembly, Reactions to constitutional assembly
The call generated further protests. 920 Battalions were created and maintained, composed by 200,000 militias to respond to violent protests. Pedro Carreño, aide of Diosdado Cabello, stated that Venezuela would be suffering an attack similar to the 1973 Chilean coup d'état against Salvador Allende, and that those militias would prevent that. Capriles complained that Maduro is preparing forces to wage a war, and said "let the world see who wants elections and who tries to impose himself by force". Protesters may be tried under military justice, instead of civil courts. The constitution of Venezuela limits the scope of the military courts to crimes of a military nature.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Parallel Supreme Tribunal
On 20 June 2017, President of the National Assembly Julio Borges, the opposition-led legislative body of Venezuela, announced the activations of Articles 333 and 350 of the Venezuelan Constitution. A "road map" was also enacted by the opposition which entailed the nullification of further actions performed by the TSJ, the call for a continuous, peaceful protest movement "until the restitution of the constitutional order" and for Venezuelans to continue to confront President Maduro's constitutional assembly.


2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis, Events, Parallel Supreme Tribunal, Reactions to parallel government
According to Jose Vicente Haro, a constitutional lawyer, the Venezuelan opposition should name new directors of Venezuela's branches of government in order to establish a parallel government and to further pursue corrupt individuals, however noting that the Bolivarian government may attempt to jail opposition leaders.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections
The Venezuelan municipal elections of 2017 were held on 10 December 2017, to elect 335 mayors throughout Venezuela, as well as the governor of the state of Zulia. This was the first municipal election held since 2013, when elections were delayed from 2012 following the death of Hugo Chávez. The election resulted in many members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (the PSUV, created by Hugo Chávez) being elected as heads of municipal governments throughout Venezuela.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Elections delay
Controversy arose surrounding whether the election would be held or not, as the National Electoral Council (CNE) had not determined a date only two months ahead of the expected date, with some believing that this was due to the belief that if elections were held, the ruling party, the PSUV, would suffer one of its largest losses in over a decade.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Elections delay
On 18 October 2016, the head of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena, stated that regional and municipal elections would not be held until mid-2017, stating the delay was due to an "economic war" and low oil prices. Government sources cited by Reuters stated that the true reason for the delay was the hope that higher oil prices might raise the popularity of the PSUV.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Elections delay
In May 2017, after approving President Maduro's plan for a National Constituent Assembly Tibisay Lucena announced that elections for representatives to redo the constitution would take place in late July, and that municipal elections would not be held until 10 December 2017, despite the fact that the National Constituent Assembly would choose its members based on decisions by the current municipal governments, which had held a PSUV majority since 2013, giving the upcoming municipal elections no chance to influence the new constitution.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Relocation of voting centers
On 2 December 2017, Súmate denounced the relocation of 169 polling stations, including in the Chacao and Libertador municipalities, with Táchira State having the most changes, with 27. Francisco Castro, director of Súmate, indicated that 106 voting centers were relocated and the remaining 63 were migrated to existing stations. He added that the most affected states with regard to voting center relocations were Mérida and Aragua, with 15 each, Miranda, with 13, Táchira and Zulia, with 12 each, and Carabobo, with 9. Voting centers were relocated by the pro-government National Electoral Council (CNE) citing security reasons, despite the fact that the 2017 Venezuelan protests ended after the Constituent Assembly election.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Un Nuevo Tiempo
On 2 December 2017, Vicente Bello, the National Electoral Council representative of the Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) opposition political party denounced irregularities during the audit of the voting machines and delivered a document to UNT leader Luis Emilio Rondón that stated that "the established protocol related to the selection of samples by status in the line of production and their subsequent verification", "the schedules set for the start of daily activity" and that the respective shifts were modified without prior notice, warning that the CNE did not establish that the samples of the selected machines were subsequently verified for proper functioning. The electoral technician clarified that the UNT would not participate in the preparation and signing of the minutes that would be carried out as result of the audit of the production of voting machines.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
The Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy (El Observatorio Global de Comunicación y Democracia (OGCD) is an NGO whose mission statement says it 'aims to strengthen democratic values in Latin America')  detected several irregularities since the announcement of the elections, including that it must have been done with six months of anticipation to comply with the electoral norms, organizing the electoral process in less than a month.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
The Observatory also states that the law establishes that the election of the representatives of the municipal councils should have been done along the municipal elections and that the CNE violated the Special Law of the Municipal Regime of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas by suspending the election of the metropolitan mayors of Caracas and Alto Apure District, as well as the representatives to the metropolitan cabildos (town halls).


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
Days after the elections, on 20 December 2017, the Constituent Assembly approved the Constituent Decree for the Suppression and Liquidation of the Metropolitan Area and the Alto Apure District, dissolving both entities. On 9 January 2018, the National Assembly with opposition majority declared the "absolute nullity" of the Constituent's Assembly decision to suppress the entities. Likewise, the Observatory indicated that the norms corresponding to the announcement were violated by publishing the electoral schedule without formal announcements or press conference of the electoral body and by performing electoral activities, such as the nomination of candidates, before the publication of the schedule.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
It also declared that norms related to the candidates postulation were also violated by granting only five days for the application, curation, admission and rejection, interposition, decision of appeals against the applications, as well as for the substitutions and modifications, and that the substitution and modification of candidacies rules were violated when the CNE established only two days for the process, when the Organic Law of Electoral Processes specifies that the political parties may modify candidacies up to ten days before the election.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
Furthermore, the Observatory denounced the elimination of the inscription of new voters for the Electoral Registry, its precarious revision and the limitation for national and international observation, whose accreditations are granted discretionally by the CNE.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
Other factors criticized by the organization were the arbitrary conformation of the municipal regional boards, whose chosen voters were the same ones chosen in a public and automated raffle on 31 March 2016, and the fact that despite that the CNE promised to review the modification and relocation of the polling stations during the previous regional elections, two days before the election several centers remained in different locations without determining the total number of stations that remained in that condition.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
The general director of the Observatory, Griselda Colina, warned about the inequity and lack of coverage of the activities of all the candidates in the public media; she stressed the lack of information for voters about the electoral offer and the outdate of the Electoral Registry since 2015, where according to unofficial estimates, approximately two million Venezuelans are being excluded.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Global Observatory of Communication and Democracy
The national coordinator of the Electoral Observation Network of the Education Assembly, José Domingo Mujica, stated that the municipal elections "drag fundamental faults since the governors elections" and due to "a hasty election to the election" a "a huge cut in the electoral schedule activities" was provoked, he also pointed to the exclusion of the municipal council elections and the metropolitan mayors and also expressed his belief that there was a pro-government advantage in the electoral campaign, citing the "abuse of the official media to openly promote the pro-government candidates" and "the difference of conditions for the participants".


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Ángel Prado
In the Simón Planas municipality in the Lara state, the chavista and Constituent Assembly member Ángel Prado at first was denied the inscription of the independent candidacy despite getting signatures of 32% of the voters in the municipality, receiving later support from the Communist Party of Venezuela, the MEP, the Tupamaro, the ORA and the Patria para Todos parties, of which the latter changed its support for the PSUV candidate to Ángel Pardo, change endorsed by Resolution Nro. 17/11/09/-00 of 13 November of the very Municipal Electoral Board.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Ángel Prado
The National Constituent Assembly directive declared that no member could to be a candidate without the written endorsement of its directive, reason why a thousand people mobilized to Caracas to demand the permit, request that was ignored. At the time of the elections only the PPT card appeared, which received 57.45% of the total votes. At the end, the CNE decided to finally award the position to the PSUV candidate, Jean Ortíz.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
During the elections, the CNE rector Luis Emilio Rondón stated that the more frequent complaints were related to assisted voting and political proselytizing near polling stations, mostly in the Barinas, Carabobo and Zulia states.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
The Electoral Observation Network of the Education Assembly (ROE) and Venezuelan Electoral Observatory (OEV) reported that the elections were characterized by abstention and the absence of both board members and witnesses, causing many voting centers to open after the stipulated time due to the lack of board members, and that several boards had to be constituted by accidental members, voters waiting in line and willig to fill the vacancies.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
The Democratic Unity Roundtable announced that in the primary process the candidates for the municipal elections would be elected, after the denouncement by the opposition coalition in the October 2017 regional elections the MUD decided not to field candidacies in these elections. However, some MUD member parties fielded candidates, such as Un Nuevo Tiempo and Avanzada Progresista


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
According to reports of the Observation Network, the average of the national participation was 21%, being Táchira the state with most participating, 35%, and Aragua with the least, 9%. The low presence of witnesses in the polling stations remained during the closure of the centers in municipalities such as Sucre, Chacao and Libertador, where the lines were too short or there were no voters waiting to vote, contrary to previous elections or the 2015 parliamentary elections. According to the reports received by the organization, the abstention reached over 70% at 4:00 pm. However, the government's National Electoral Council has estimated that 47.32% of people eligible to vote did so.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
According to Domingo Mujica, the ROE national coordinator, violations of the companion voting rule were detected in 15 % on a national scale, use of public funds to mobilize voters in 16%, that 10% of the centers reported technical failures with the voting machines and that there were incidents in 5% of the stations. Other irregularities denounced by the specialists were the disproportionate use of political propaganda near polling stations and the use of the Carnet de la Patria as a coercion method of the voter.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
Ignacio Ávalos, director of the OEV, indicated that the delay in the opening was also due to the fact that in several centers the voters refused to volunteer. According to the Observation Network, approximately 48% of the polling stations throughout the country had to be constituted by accidental members and 45% of the polling stations had no witnesses.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
There were complaints of voting centers in the Libertador municipality of Caracas where "red points" were installed for the verification of the voter's Carnet de la Patria and where propaganda in favor of the pro-government candidates was shown, an act forbidden during the electoral processes prohibited act during the electoral processes. Despite that Jorge Rodríguez clarifyed that only the identity card was needed to vote, president Nicolás Maduro, vicepresident Tareck El Aissami and Rodríguez encouraged voters to vote with the Carnet de la Patria. In an afternoon press conference, Jorge Rodríguez assured that those who voted in the municipal elections and registered their participation in the tricolor points with the Carnet de la Patria "would receive a gift".


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
The coordinator of the electoral center of the Andrés Bello school in La Candelaria parish in Caracas denounced that the National Electoral Council did not hagive the credentials to the board members and witnesses who supported the candidate for mayor of the Libertador municipality Maribel Castillo, so they could not seal, sign or access the polling station, while they were delivered the night before to the representatives of the Patria Para Todos party and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Irregularities, Election day
In the Udón Pérez voting center, in Maracaibo, twenty motorcyclists with passengers verbally threatened voters and journalists, including Zulia state candidate Manuel Rosales, throwing explosives before retiring. In the Portuguesa state three persons were detained for attempting to illegally enter in a voting center. In the San Cristóbal and Junín municipalities in Táchira state there were three preventive detentions for the destruction of the electoral ballot and the damage of a voting machine, respectively.


2017 Venezuelan municipal elections, Results
According to the results published by the National Electoral Council (CNE) on its website, the United Socialist Party and the Great Patriotic Pole obtained 306 municipalities, while the opposition and independents that participated obtained 29 municipalities.


2017 Venezuelan protests
The 2017 Venezuelan protests,  were a series of protests occurring throughout Venezuela. Protests began in January 2017 after the arrest of multiple opposition leaders and the cancellation of dialogue between the opposition and Nicolás Maduro's government.


2017 Venezuelan protests
As the tension continued, the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis began in late March when the pro-government Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) dissolved the opposition-led National Assembly, with the intensity of protests increasing greatly throughout Venezuela following the decision. As April arrived,  the protests grew "into the most combative since a wave of unrest in 2014" resulting from the crisis with hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protesting daily through the month and into May. After failing to prevent the July Constituent Assembly election, the opposition and protests largely lost momentum.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
Following the death of President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela faced a severe socioeconomic crisis during the presidency of his successor, Nicolás Maduro, as a result of Chávez's policies and Maduro's continuation of them. Due to the country's high levels of urban violence, inflation, and chronic shortages of basic goods attributed to economic policies such as strict price controls, civil insurrection in Venezuela culminated in the 2014–17 protests.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
Protests occurred over the years, with demonstrations occurring in various intensities depending on the crises Venezuelans were facing at the time and the perceived threat of being repressed by authorities.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
Due to the discontent with the Bolivarian government, the opposition was elected to hold the majority in the National Assembly for the first time since 1999, following the 2015 parliamentary election. As a result of that election, the lame duck National Assembly, consisting of government officials, filled the TSJ with allies.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
Into early 2016, the TSJ alleged that voting irregularities occurred in the 2015 parliamentary elections and stripped four lawmakers of their seats, preventing an opposition supermajority in the National Assembly which would be able to challenge President Maduro. The TSJ court then began to approve of multiple actions performed by Maduro and granted him more powers.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
After facing years of crisis, the Venezuelan opposition pursued a recall referendum against President Maduro, presenting a petition to the National Electoral Council (CNE) on May 2, 2016. By August 2016, the momentum to recall President Maduro appeared to be progressing as the CNE set a date for the second phase of collecting signatures. Though it made the schedule strenuous, stretching the process into 2017 made it impossible for the opposition to activate new presidential elections.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
On 21 October 2016, the CNE suspended the referendum only days before preliminary signature-gatherings were to be held.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
The CNE blamed alleged voter fraud as the reason for the cancellation of the referendum. International observers criticized the move, stating that CNE's decision made Maduro look as if he were seeking to rule as a dictator.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
Days after the recall movement was cancelled, 1.2 million Venezuelans protested throughout the country against the move, demanding President Maduro to leave office. Caracas protests remained calm while protests in other states resulted in clashes between demonstrators and authorities, leaving one policeman dead, 120 injured and 147 arrested. That day the opposition gave President Maduro a deadline of 3 November 2016 to hold elections, with opposition leader Henrique Capriles stating, "Today we are giving a deadline to the government. I tell the coward who is in Miraflores ... that on 3 November the Venezuelan people are coming to Caracas because we are going to Miraflores".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
Days later on 1 November 2016, then National Assembly President and opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup announced the cancellation of the 3 November march to the Miraflores presidential palace, with Vatican-led dialogue between the opposition and the government beginning.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Background
By 7 December 2016, dialogue halted between the two and two months later on 13 January 2017 after talks stalled, the Vatican officially pulled out of the dialogue.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline
Protests were originally much smaller in the early months of 2017 due to the fear of repression. The first large protest to occur in 2017 was on 23 January 2017, with several thousand Venezuelans participating. Following that day of protest, opposition leader Henrique Capriles stated that only surprise protests would occur for the meantime.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline
The following day, the first surprise demonstration occurred with only hundreds of Venezuelans attending, blocking the Francisco Fajardo highway in both directions holding a sign saying "Elections now", with Venezuelan authorities not being able to respond until an hour later when the protest was peacefully broken up. There were no other surprise protests to follow.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constitutional crisis
On 29 March 2017, the 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis began, with immunity being taken away from opposition parliamentarians by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela (TSJ), with the TSJ assuming legislative powers of the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Days later, the Supreme Court reversed its decision on 1 April, though the opposition argued that the juridic action was still a "coup". Protests following the constitutional crisis grew "into the most combative since a wave of unrest in 2014". Weeks later on 14 April 2017, the opposition announced the "Grand March and Great Taking in All States", later known as the "Mother of All Marches", to take place on 19 April to "overflow" Caracas.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Mother of All Marches
On 19 April 2017, the "mother of all protests", as it was called by organizers, occurred. The day began with demonstrators gathering around the country at about 10:30 a.m., with Caracas having 26 different routes for the main march to head to the office of the Ombudsman to demonstrate. As the march progressed through Caracas, the National Guard began to block routes and fire tear gas at marchers at 11:50 a.m., with the demonstrators refusing to leave despite the use of force. At about 12:30 p.m., demonstrations by both opposition and pro-government Venezuelans fill Caracas' avenues.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Mother of All Marches
Shortly after 12:45 p.m., protesters on the Francisco Fajardo Freeway near Bello Monte begin to flee the area after enduring over an hour of tear gas from authorities, with many leaping into the Guaire River, which is used for sewage drainage, to avoid the gas. Near 2:10 p.m., a 17-year-old boy was shot in the head and killed at a protest.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Mother of All Marches
At about 4:35 p.m., pro-government paramilitaries called colectivos shot and killed Paola Ramírez, a 23-year-old woman who was protesting. Later in the evening, a National Guardsman was killed south of Caracas, the first authority killed in the year's protests, with the day's deaths raising the death toll of the 2017 protests to at least 8 people. By 9:00 p.m., the Penal Forum stated that 521 Venezuelans had been arrested throughout the day, bringing the number of total arrests since the beginning of the year to over 1,000. Several media outlets stated "hundreds of thousands" participated while Central University mathematics professor Ricardo Rios estimated at least 1.2 million protested, which would make it the largest protest in Venezuela's history. According to pollster Meganálisis, 2.5 million Venezuelans protested in Caracas alone, while 6 million protested throughout the country.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, OAS withdrawal
The government began efforts to withdraw from the Organization of American States, a two-year process, on 26 April 2017, after multiple member states called for a special session to discuss Venezuela's crisis.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, OAS withdrawal
Following the death of a student the same day, the son of Ombudsman Tarek Saab, Yibram Saab, uploaded a video on YouTube stating that he had protested that night and that "That could've been me! ", condemning what he called "the brutal repression by the country's security forces", and pleading to his father saying "Dad, in this moment you have the power to end the injustice that has sunk this country. I ask you as your son and in the name of Venezuela, to whom you serve, that you reflect on the situation and do what you have to do".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
On 1 May 2017, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protested, attempting to march to various government buildings to have their demands met. Police responded to the peaceful marches violently, firing tear gas, with one National Assembly member, Jose Olivares, being struck in the head with a tear gas canister, which led to heavy bleeding. President Maduro announced later that day plans to replace the National Assembly with a communal national assembly and called for the drafting of a new constitution under a handpicked constituent assembly, the third in modern times.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
The move by President Maduro would also allow him to stay in power during the interregnum, essentially nullifying the 2018 presidential elections, as the constitutional process would take at least two years. According to Reuters, "Maduro's call ... to rewrite the constitution has energized the protest movement".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
Hundreds of thousands of people marched on 3 May, denouncing President Maduro's proposed rewrite of the constitution. The clashes between protesters and authorities left more than 300 injured and one dead; in one incident, National Guard VN-4 armoured personnel carriers rammed protesters who were rushing a group of guardsmen. A video went viral of President Maduro dancing on state television while National Guardsmen were seen using tear gas on protesters nearby. Reuters again noted that "images of a military vehicle running over a demonstrator ... caused further outrage", with protests continuing.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
Opposition officials, on 5 May, draped a large banner down the side of the National Assembly's administrative building high above central Caracas reading "Dictator Maduro". Citizens of La Villa del Rosario burned and tore down a statue of late President Hugo Chávez, an act compared to the destruction of Saddam Hussein's statue in Iraq as well as other instances of statue toppling during times of popular unrest.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
President Maduro announced a plan of "a military constituency to deepen the Bolivarian military revolution within the very heart of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces" on 8 May, calling for the military to help draft a new constitution with the goal to "strengthen the union" between the military and civilians. On 13 May 2017, President Maduro declared a "State of Emergency and Economic Emergency throughout the national territory" in the Official Gazette N° 6,298, creating the possibility of granting Maduro more decree powers and the power to temporarily suspend some constitutional rights.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
On the 50th day of consecutive protests, millions of Venezuelans protested in Caracas on 20 May during the "We Are Millions" march, demanding an end to violent repression and immediate elections. The day resulted in over 120 injured in Caracas alone, while one man was killed in Valera, Trujillo by colectivo members despite nearby police presence.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
The same month, the investment bank Goldman Sachs purchased $2.8 billion of PDVSA 2022 bonds from the Central Bank of Venezuela. In its original statement, Goldman stated that "We recognize that the situation is complex and evolving and that Venezuela is in crisis. We agree that life there has to get better, and we made the investment in part because we believe it will.".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Constituent assembly proposal
Venezuelan politicians and protesters in New York opposed to Maduro accused the bank of being of complicit of human rights abuses under the government and declared that the operation would fuel hunger in Venezuela by depriving the government of foreign exchange to import food, leading the securities to be dubbed "hunger bonds." The National Assembly voted to ask the U.S. Congress to investigate the deal, which they called "immoral, opaque, and hypocritical given the socialist government’s anti-Wall Street rhetoric". In a public letter to the bank's chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, the National Assembly president Julio Borges said that "Goldman Sachs’s financial lifeline to the regime will serve to strengthen the brutal repression unleashed against the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans peacefully protesting for political change in the country."


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Barinas riots
It is pretty symbolic that the citizens are venting their frustrations on the author of the Bolivarian revolution


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Barinas riots
Residents of Barinas – the hometown of President Maduro's predecessor, late President Hugo Chávez – began the day by demonstrating against Maduro's proposed constitutional changes. Following the death of Yorman Alí Bervecia and Jhon Alberto Quintero on 22 May, who were allegedly killed by the National Guard during the protests, citizens of Barinas began to riot. Individuals began to attack state institutions and buildings of the ruling PSUV party, including the local CNE office, the Barinas state PSUV headquarters and the La Concordia police station, where uniforms and firearms were stolen.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Barinas riots
Residents later turned their attention to the birthplace home of the late President Hugo Chávez, burning his childhood residence. Five statues of Chávez were also destroyed in the area's rioting. Among the chaos in "the cradle of Chavez's revolution", former chavistas were seen gathered and burning government related paraphernalia, denouncing President Maduro as "a tyrant" while chanting that his days were numbered as the leader of Venezuela. As the day concluded, over 50 stores were looted in Barinas, while additional deaths were recorded, with the death toll rising up to six killed as well as reports of hundreds being injured. Opposition leaders condemned the violence as the Barinas riots overshadowed their official demonstrations surrounding the healthcare of Venezuela that day.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Helicopter incident
We would never give up, and what couldn't be done with votes, we would do with weapons, we would liberate the fatherland with weapons.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Helicopter incident
On 27 June 2017, President Maduro stated that if his government fails, he and his supporters would use forces to reestablish the government. That afternoon, a video was released showing men with assault rifles flanking Oscar Pérez, a film actor and investigator of CICPC, Venezuela's investigative agency, stating that "We are nationalists, patriots and institutionalists. This fight is not with the rest of the state forces, it is against the tyranny of this government".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Helicopter incident
Hours after the video was released, Pérez is seen piloting a CICPC helicopter over the Supreme Court with a banner on the side reading "350 Liberty", a reference to Article 350 of the constitution which states that "The people of Venezuela ... shall disown any regime, legislation or authority that violates democratic values, principles and guarantees or encroaches upon human rights". While the helicopter was near the Supreme Court, gunfire was heard in the area. President Maduro stated that a military rebellion had occurred while opposition officials said that the actions were staged so Maduro could justify a crackdown on those who oppose his government and the constituent assembly. National Guardsmen then stormed the National Assembly, assaulting the largely opposition legislative body.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, 2017 Venezuelan referendum
On 5 July 2017, the National Assembly announced plans of a referendum for Venezuelans to decide whether they agree with the Constituent Assembly election, demanded the military to recognize the National Assembly or demanded immediate general elections. That day, Vice President Tareck El Aissami led government supporters to the Palacio Federal Legislativo, where the National Assembly was later attacked by colectivos.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, 2017 Venezuelan referendum
Days later, the 2017 Venezuelan referendum was held on 16 July, with the opposition stating that about 7.5 million Venezuelans participated in the process, with over 99% voting against the Constituent Assembly, voting for the recognition of the National Assembly and voting for immediate general elections.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Trancazos and strikes
Following the rejection of the referendum's results by the government, the opposition announced plans for a "zero hour", planning trancazos, or sit-ins where citizens often congregated in mass on streets to impede city life, and setting dates for general strikes. From 18 to 19 July, trancazos closed the streets of many cities in Venezuela. On 20 July, millions of Venezuelans participated in a 24-hour general strike.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election
Despite opposition efforts, the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election was held on 30 July 2017. The majority of those elected into the 2017 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela were loyal to the government due to the opposition boycott of the election. More than 40 countries condemned the elections, and raised concerns of Venezuela turning into a dictatorship.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election
Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Electoral Council, announced that 8,089,230 persons voted, with a 41.53% turnout though the voting machine company Smartmatic stated that the number of votes were manipulated by at least one million votes while Reuters also reported that according to internal CNE documents leaked to the agency, only 3,720,465 votes were cast thirty minutes before polls were expected to close, though polls were open for an additional hour.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Disillusionment of protest movement
On 6 August 2017, about 20 individuals led by fugitive Captain Juan Caguaripano's "41st Brigade" attacked Paramacay Military Base near Valencia, Venezuela and stole weapons from the facility, with many residents of Valencia supporting the rebellion and shouting "freedom" in the streets. Most members of the attack as well as their leaders were captured days later.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Disillusionment of protest movement
By 8 August, a national trancazo called by the opposition was quickly dispersed and experienced low turnout. A march organized for 12 August had only about 1,000 participants, with many Venezuelans stating that they had lost interest in the protest movement due to the fear of repression and because of their anger towards the conflicted opposition, and expressing their disapproval with the opposition's decision to participate in the regional elections.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Disillusionment of protest movement
Following the 2017 Venezuelan regional elections where the opposition only won five of twenty-three governorships, disillusionment with the opposition movement grew, especially after four of five opposition governors elected of Democratic Action decided to be sworn in under the government-led National Constituent Assembly despite promises to never recognize the body.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Timeline, Christmas protests
Shortly before and after Christmas, Venezuelans throughout the country, with these individual groups numbering no more than fifty, began to gather in groups and protest against the shortages of food and gasoline. Many gas stations throughout the country resorting to having military personnel distribute rationed amounts of gasoline.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Deaths, April
In the first month of protests, April 2017, 33 Venezuelans died as a result of incidents surrounding the protests. A large proportion of the deaths occurred on 20 April 2017, with 16 deaths being attributed to looting occurring in Caracas that evening consisting of thirteen electrocution deaths and three firearm deaths.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Deaths, April
Venezuelan authorities were the cause of 7 other deaths that month; five firearm deaths, one tear gas canister wound and one asphyxiation from tear gas, while pro-government paramilitary groups known as colectivos, which cooperate with government security forces to repress protesters, were responsible for another 6 deaths, all the result of firearms. Deaths perpetrated by unknown individuals accounted for 4 Venezuelans killed in April; three gunshot wounds and one head injury.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Deaths, May
In the month of May, a total of 47 Venezuelans died following violence occurring near protests. Unknown perpetrators were the cause of death for 24 Venezuelans; twenty gunshot wounds, one head injury, two electrocutions and one unknown cause of death. Security forces were responsible for 16 deaths; all sixteen deaths attributed to firearms, while colectivos killed 2 individuals; all two resulting from firearms. Accidental and incidental deaths claimed 4 lives; two from an automobile accident with a barricade, two from being struck by a vehicle. Citizens of Barinas shot dead 1 member of the National Guard during the riots in the area in late-May.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Deaths, June
In June, a total of 25 Venezuelans were killed during the protests. Fifteen deaths were attributed to unknown individuals, three deaths were caused by colectivos with all being gunshot wounds, three were caused by civilians, two were attributed to accidents, two were caused Venezuelan authorities with both being gunshot wounds. The causes of death were seventeen gunshot wound incidents, five incidents where individuals were struck by a vehicle, one death by tear gas asphyxiation, one death by blunt trauma and one lynching. A man who was struck in the head by a tear gas canister in June 2017 later died on 13 February 2018.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Deaths, July
A total of 58 Venezuelans were killed in the month of July as protests culminated into the 2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election. During the election day alone on 30 July, 10 individuals died as a result of violent clashes, representing a large number of those killed in the month. Excluding those killed during the 6 August Paramacay Military Base attack, July was the final month in which protesters were killed, as the protests began to dissipate in mid-August.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Deaths, December
The final death during the 2017 protests occurred on Christmas Eve when an 18 year old pregnant woman was caught in a protest over limited amounts of pork. She was shot and killed by a National Guardsman at the scene who was later arrested.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government
Amnesty International maintains that the government has a "premeditated policy" to commit violent and lethal acts against protesters, stating that there is "a planned strategy by the government of President Maduro to use violence and illegitimate force against the Venezuelan population to neutralize any criticism".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Torture and abuses
Human rights groups have stated that Venezuelan authorities have used force to gain confessions. Foro Penal stated that "most of the detainees are beaten once they are arrested, while they are being transferred to a temporary detention site where they are to be brought before a judge", giving one instance with "a group of 40 people arrested for alleged looting, 37 reported that they were beaten before their hair was forcefully shaved off their heads". In other examples of abuses, "15 reported that they were forced to eat pasta with grass and excrement.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Torture and abuses
The regime’s officials forced dust from tear gas canisters up their noses to pry open their mouths. They then shoved the pasta with excrement in their mouths and made them swallow it". Venezuela's intelligence agency, SEBIN, was ordered by President Maduro on 16 April to take legal actions against individuals who state that they have been tortured by authorities.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Torture and abuses
I order SEBIN to sue those spokesmen of the opposition who are accusing of barbarities and improper acts that are never discussed in this republic.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Torture and abuses
According to the Justice and Peace Commission of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, many other cases of abuses have been recorded. In one instance, a woman was arrested in Altos Mirandinos by the National Guard where she was beaten and then urinated on by three National Guardsmen who threatened to rape her.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Torture and abuses
Human Rights Watch has reviewed extensive evidence implicating the Venezuelan security forces ... in a wide range of serious abuses since protesters took to the streets ... Security forces have used excessive force and condoned attacks by armed pro-government groups against massive anti-government protests, leading to dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. Security forces have also engaged in arbitrary arrests and physical abuse against detainees that in some cases would amount to torture.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Torture and abuses
In a 15 June statement, Human Rights Watch stated that high levels officials of the government, such as Major General Antonio José Benavides Torres, the head of the Bolivarian National Guard; Chief General Vladimir Padrino López, the defense minister and the strategic operational commander of the Armed Forces; Major General Néstor Reverol, the interior minister, General Carlos Alfredo Pérez Ampueda, director of the Bolivarian National Police; Major General Gustavo González López, the national intelligence director, and Captain Siria Venero de Guerrero, the military attorney general, are responsible for the human rights violations and abuses performed by Venezuelan security forces during the protests. Venezuelan officials have praised authorities for their actions and denied any wrongdoing.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Torture and abuses
The United Nations has decried "widespread and systematic use of excessive force" against demonstrators, saying security forces and pro-government groups were responsible for the deaths of at least 73 protesters. UN rights office described "a picture of widespread and systematic use of excessive force and arbitrary detentions against demonstrators in Venezuela". "Witness accounts suggest that security forces, mainly the national guard, the national police and local police forces, have systematically used disproportionate force to instil fear, crush dissent and to prevent demonstrators from assembling, rallying and reaching public institutions to present petitions," the rights office said.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Raids in residential areas
A report by Human Rights Watch and Foro Penal documented at least six cases in which Venezuelan security forces raided residential areas andapartment buildings in Caracas and in four different states, usually near barricades built by residents. According to testimonies, officials bursted into houses without warrants, stealing personal belongings and food from residents, as well as beating and arresting them.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Use of tear gas
Groups such as the Venezuelan Observatory of Health have denounced the use of tear gas fired directly or nearby health centers and hospitals, as well as houses and residential buildings. A report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights specified that non lethal weapons, were used systematically to cause unnecessary injuries, explaining that security forces fired tear gas canisters directly against protesters at short distances.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Use of firearms
The majority of individuals killed during protests died from gunshot wounds, with many resulting from the repression by Venezuelan authorities and assisting pro-government colectivos. During protests on 5 June, members of CONAS, Venezuela's elite anti-kidnapping task-force, fired live ammunition at protesters in eastern Caracas as they gathered near the CCCT shopping mall.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Use of chemical agents
In 2017, Amnesty International once again criticized the government's usage of chemical agents, expressing concern of a "red gas" used to suppress protesters in Chacao on 8 April 2017,  demanding "clarification of the components of the red tear gas used by state security forces against the opposition demonstrations". Experts stated that all tear gas used by authorities should originally be colorless, noting that the color may be added to provoke or "color" protesters so they can easily be identified and arrested.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Use of chemical agents
On 10 April 2017, Venezuelan police fired tear gas at protesters from helicopters flying overhead, which is prohibited by Article 141 of the Civil Aeronautic Law; demonstrators fled to avoid being hit by the high-velocity canisters.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Government, Use of chemical agents
Mónica Kräuter, a chemist and teacher of the Simón Bolívar University who has studied over a thousand tear gas canisters since 2014, has stated that security forces have fired expired tear gas which, according to her, "breaks down into cyanide oxide, phosgenes and nitrogens that are extremely dangerous".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Protest violence, Protesters, Resistencia
Organized groups, known as the Resistencia (Resistance), perform confrontational acts against Venezuelan authorities. The Resistencia members state that they defend other protesters from approaching violent authorities while the Maduro government characterizes them as "right-wing, drug-crazed terrorists". Former Venezuelan authorities are members of the Resistencia, teaching them riot formations and other government methods. The groups deny attacks on government buildings.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Plan Zamora
Sadly, this is the beginning of a war, gentlemen ... They will continue until reaching the point where an intervention is justified. Let’s not fool ourselves. Sadly, it fell to our generation to live with this conflict, and we have to assume it to the degree that is being demanded by our country.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Plan Zamora
Over 2,000 security checkpoints were ordered by President Maduro on 15 April, which would be established throughout Venezuela prior to the 19 April "mega march", with nearly 200,000 Venezuelan authorities said to be participating. Finally on 18 April, President Maduro "green-lighted" Plan Zamora, a plan compared to the heavily criticized Plan Ávila, and was described by officials as "a joint strategic plan to respond to possible adverse events or foreign intervention that endangers the country's security".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Plan Zamora
Antonio Benavides, commander of the Bolivarian National Guard, stated that the plan involved "the incorporation of the people to exercise the transition from normal social activity to the state of internal or external commotion", granting Bolivarian civilians the power to act as shock troops. The plan also granted the Bolivarian state the power to arrest protesters under martial law and have civilians face military tribunals, which was heavily criticized by human rights groups. Civilians accused of attacking military authorities would be charged with "rebellion" and could be summarily tried in military courts.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Plan Zamora, Use of snipers
In late-April, days after the Mother of All Marches, generals of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela gathered in Barquisimeto at discussion chaired by Lara Division General José Rafael Torrealba Pérez; with Brigadier General Hernán Enrique Homez Machado (National Guard), Brigadier General Carlos Enrique Quijada Rojas (Air Force), Brigadier General Dilio Rafael Rodríguez Díaz (Army), Brigadier General Joel Vicente Canelón (Army) and Brigadier General Iván Darío Lara Lander (Army) attending.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Plan Zamora, Use of snipers
At the meeting, Torrealba suggests the use of snipers against protesters, explaining that sniper candidates must be chosen out of loyalty, telling the generals "to make preparations with those individuals that can serve as snipers, beginning with psychological and aptitude tests". He further explained the risk of civil war, stating that President Maduro "has already signed a range of operations and as I said ... we could be at the beginning of a subversive urban war".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Plan Zamora, Use of snipers
Despite the objection by an attending general, Torrealba insisted that the snipers would scare protesters off the street, saying "it will only be us that pulls through because ... once people start to see dead bodies, and dead bodies begin to appear, then everyone will begin to stay at home ... You will remember my words, the armed forces are the ones that have to solve this problem".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Plan Zamora, Use of snipers
On 22 May, it was reported that snipers supposedly belonging to the National Guard were firing from the Center for Education and Development of Petróleos de Venezuela rooftops in the El Hatillo Municipality.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Civilian groups, Bolivarian Militia and colectivos
On 1 February 2017, President Maduro announced that the Bolivarian Militia would be directed towards an anti-protest objective, saying that his supporters "will multiply throughout the territory, special forces of rapid action, special troops of the militias ... to make our homeland impregnable".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Civilian groups, Bolivarian Militia and colectivos
Two days before the Mother of All Marches, President Maduro on 17 April ordered the expansion of the Bolivarian Militia to involve 500,000 loyal Venezuelans, stating that each would be armed with a rifle and demanded the prevention of another event similar to the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Civilian groups, Bolivarian Militia and colectivos
Diosdado Cabello, a high-level PSUV official loyal to the government, stated that 60,000 motorized colectivos and the Bolivarian Militia would be spread throughout Caracas on 19 April "until necessary" to deter the opposition's "megamarch", calling their actions "terrorism".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Civilian groups, Bolivarian Militia and colectivos
Observatorio Venezolano de Conflictividad Social stated that between 1 April 2017 and 31 July 2017, colectivos attacked at least 523 of 6,729 of protests – or about 8% of protests – with bullet wounds reported in the majority of the protests where colectivos were involved.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Law enforcement, Ban on imports
The Venezuelan government on 27 May began to block the import of first aid kits, gas masks, gauze, eye drops, and bullet-proof vests, among other products, stating that the goods were to be used by terrorists.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
In the early days of the protests on 12 April, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued an advisory to journalists, stating:


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
Local and international journalists covering the protests have been attacked, beaten, arrested and sprayed with tear gas, and have had their equipment confiscated and stolen. ... Journalists covering the story told the CPJ that the authorities have been firing tear gas into the crowds at close range. ... Local and international media have found it increasingly difficult to operate in Venezuela due to government obstruction. Police and armed pro-government gangs have detained, harassed and attacked journalists. Assaults have taken place in broad daylight, and pro-government gangs have stolen media equipment.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
The CPJ offered advice on how to avoid aggression, how to react to tear gas and how to contact the organization to report any attacks on journalists.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
During the Mother of All Marches, an El Nacional reporter was robbed by a Bolivarian National Police officer. The following day, more than 50 government sympathizers attacked three El Nacional journalists on 20 April, near La India, beating them with sticks while also throwing rocks and bottles at them. Another journalist captured the attack on film.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
On 6 May during a women's march, reporters were attacked by state authorities throughout the country. In San Carlos, Cojedes, Alexander Olvera was kicked by a National Guardsman while covering a protest. A reporter for El Pitazo, Yessica Sumoza, was robbed of her equipment in Caracas, while in Aragua, local police struck reporter Gaby Aguilar in the face with a stone. Alexander Medina of Radio Fe y Alegría, meanwhile, was surrounded by authorities in San Fernando, Apure who threatened to lynch the reporter.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
During protests on 8 May, there were 19 reports of attacks on journalists, with 5 instances involving protesters attempting to rob reporters, while the other 15 reports involved Venezuelan authorities and colectivos.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
On 10 May, 27-year-old Miguel Castillo Bracho, a journalist who had graduated the previous week, died after being shot in the chest with a tear gas canister by a National Guardsman while already being detained. On 18 May, four journalists were attacked by the National Guard and had their equipment stolen, including Eugenio García of Spain, Herminia Rodríguez of Globovision, Andry Rincón of Vivoplaynet and Kevin Villamizar of El Nacional.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Attacks on journalists
During the 20 May protests, a graphic journalist of La Patilla was injured in Chacaíto after being shot in the leg with a tear gas canister.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Censorship
President Maduro ordered cable providers to take CNN en Español off the air on 14 February 2017, days after CNN aired an investigation into the alleged fraudulent issuing of Venezuelan passports and visas. The news story revealed a confidential intelligence document that linked Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami to 173 Venezuelan passports and IDs issued to individuals from the Middle East, including people connected to the terrorist group Hezbollah.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Media, Censorship
During the Mother of All Marches on 19 April, TN's satellite signal was censored from DirecTV after showing live coverage of the protests. El Tiempo of Colombia was also censored in the country during the day's protests. That night, the National Commission of Telecommunications removed the Spanish channel Antena 3 from cable carriers, following rumors that they were going to cover the political crisis in Venezuela.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Hacking
On 6 May 2017, it was reported that two individuals on Twitter, @yosoyjustin and @ERHDP calling themselves TeamHDPP, breached several Venezuelan government agencies and Internet portals, hacking information from Carnet de la Patria holders. Hacker @yosoyjsutin stated that the hackings were "for all the Venezuelans fallen during the last days of protests in Venezuela. Their deaths will not be in vain". Details hacked included "identities, telephone numbers, email accounts, Twitter and addresses among other personal descriptions" of government officials and authorities, including those of National Bolivarian Police, CICPC, SEBIN, CONATEL and the Chancellery.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Hacking
The Carnet de la Patria accounts of President Nicolás Maduro, his wife (First Lady Cilia Flores), the Minister of Popular Power for Communication and Information Ernesto Villegas, Diosdado Cabello, Chancellor Delcy Rodríguez, Admiral Carmen Teresa Meléndez Rivas and other officials were also cancelled. The hackers added, "We have more than 450 PDF files and more than a thousand page conversations of them".


2017 Venezuelan protests, Hacking
Following the 2017 Constituent Assembly election, The Binary Guardians, a hacker group, attacked multiple Venezuelan government and military websites placing anti-government messages and called for the military to intervene against the government.


2017 Venezuelan protests, Hacking
On August 6 the MUD denounced that their website was hacked for a second time. The site was defaced, featuring US president Donald Trump and French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon giving a speech about an alleged international policy of destabilization in Venezuela.


2017 Venezuelan protests, International reactions
Venezuelans and activists harassed government officials and their families who enjoyed luxurious lifestyles compared to Venezuelan citizens. The top income of a Venezuelan official would be approximately $700 per year. Despite this, families of government officials live abroad and even attend foreign universities.


2017 Venezuelan protests, International reactions
The daughter of Caracas mayor and Bolivarian official Jorge Rodríguez, Lucia Rodriguez, who is also the niece of foreign minister Delcy Rodríguez, resides in Australia attending SAE Institute. Human rights activists have criticized her lifestyle in Australia, with activists verbally attacking Rodriguez as she was at Bondi Beach sipping cocktails, requiring her personal body guard to intervene. The former banking minister under Chávez, Eugenio Vasquez Orellana, was also harassed while eating at a Venezuelan bakery in Doral, Florida. On 11 May, Venezuelans in Spain surrounded a cultural center in Spain preventing Venezuelan ambassador Mario Isea from leaving, with Isea calling the action a "kidnapping".


2017 Venezuelan protests, International reactions
President Maduro compared the verbal confrontations with Bolivarian sympathizers abroad to the Nazi persecution of the Jews, stating "We are the Jews of the 21st century". The  Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela denounced Maduro's comparison to the Holocaust, stating "That episode in the history of humanity, which cost 6 million Jews their lives, among them 1.5 million children, is unique and incomparable" and that his comparison "offends the memory of the Victims and all who are direct mourners of this dark episode of humanity".


2017 Venezuelan referendum
The 2017 Venezuelan referendum was held in Venezuela on 16 July 2017. The referendum was called by the National Assembly in response to the constitutional crisis and President Nicolás Maduro's plans for a Constituent Assembly. The referendum is an act of civil disobedience in the context of the application of Articles 333 and 350 of the Venezuelan constitution, with the articles calling for Venezuelans to "disown any regime ... that violates democratic values", especially since the National Electoral Council and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice are not recognized in the referendum. The opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) announced that there would be 2,030 areas for the popular consultation nationwide to serve more than 19 million voters.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Background, Constitutional crisis
On 29 March 2017, the government-filled Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) attempted to assume the powers of the opposition-led National Assembly, though the TSJ later reversed their decision. Despite this, protests in the country strengthened to an intensity not seen since the 2014 Venezuelan protests.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Background, Constitutional crisis
As protests intensified with nearly 30 killed in clashes in one month, President Maduro called for a Constitutional Assembly to draft a new constitution on 1 May 2017, sparking more outrage among Venezuelans. Protesting occurred for nearly 100 days before the opposition announced the unofficial referendum.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Background, Planning
The National Assembly unanimously approved the plebiscite on 5 July 2017 based on Articles 5, 70 and 71 of the constitution. The National Commission of Telecommunications banned the media from calling the referendum a "popular consultation"; a move that was described as "arbitrary and illegal" by the National College of Journalists.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Background, Planning, Questions
On 6 July the Unity Roundtable announced the 3 questions that will be asked in the National Consultation, according to what is established by the opposition alliance, Venezuelans should answer three questions with "Yes" or "No", with The intention that the results are the first step for a change of political system in Venezuela. The questions would be:


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Background, Planning, Questions
In the electoral process, all Venezuelans over the age of 18 enrolled or not enrolled in the CNE, inside and outside Venezuela, may participate. The committee formed for the development of the event, called "Rescue for Democracy", would work on the logistics and security of this activity.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Opinion polls, Constituent Assembly
An 8 May poll found that 73% of Venezuelans disagreed with Maduro's Constitutional Assembly, with 79% believing that they live in some form of dictatorship (49% believe absolute dictatorship, 30% believe it is a mix of a dictatorship and democracy). According to a May 2017 poll by More Consulting, 68.8% of the Venezuelans reject the proposal, and 72.9% (with more than 20% who consider themselves chavistas) consider the government a dictatorship.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Opinion polls, Constituent Assembly
A poll taken by Hercon between 10–25 May 2017 found that 78.1% wanted Maduro out of office in 2017, 79.9% did not agree with the Constitutional Assembly, 73.3% believed the CNE favored the ruling party (PSUV) and 75.5% thought that President Maduro started the Constitutional Assembly proposal to establish a government similar to Cuba's.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Conduct
President of the National Assembly, Julio Borges, invited several former presidents as observers for the popular consultation. The Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA) reported that it will send a commission consisting of five former presidents: Laura Chinchilla from Costa Rica, Vicente Fox from Mexico, Andrés Pastrana from Colombia, Jorge Quiroga from Bolivia and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez of Costa Rica, in response to the invitation. The Assembly also invited "more than 12 personalities and parliamentarians from other countries".


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Conduct
The process was assisted by organizations such as Súmate, EsData, Voto Joven and Foro Penal Venezolano. Invitations have been made to international organizations to attend as witnesses, but it is unknown whether they were able to attend.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Conduct
In the morning as voting began, colectivos broke into the voting center of the San Agustín parish in western Caracas, destroyed the notebooks that already had over three hundred signatures and stole an electoral ballot box. The center was moved to Parque Carabobo to continue with the voting.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Conduct
Colectivos and Venezuelan authorities loyal to the Bolivarian government had also fired guns upon a large congregation of voters and dispersed a center in the usually pro-government neighborhood of Catia. The shooting in Catia left two dead and four seriously injured from gunshot wounds.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Conduct
As polls closed at 4:00pm VST, President Maduro appeared on state television and made no mention of the Catia incident, instead blaming the opposition for any violence the country is facing. A "rehearsal" of the 30 July constitutional vote held on the same day resulted in a smaller number of participants. State media also portrayed the rehearsal as having a "high turnout", despite conventional press noting its low turnout and that Maduro did not appear in public as planned.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Conduct
The following day, National Guard General Antonio Benavides Torres, the Chief of Government of the Capital District who is under investigation for human rights violations, stated that the opposition was responsible for the violence in Catia and that the referendum had very low turnout, saying that at opposition voting centers, "there were barely 50 people". On 18 July, President Maduro suggested that the United States was responsible for the violence in Catia.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Results
Of the 19.5 million registered Venezuelan voters, approximately 7.5 million people participated in the referendum, including 690,000 Venezuelans from abroad. Low turnout was attributed to less voting areas than official elections, with about 2,000 voting areas in Venezuela and 500 foreign cities with centers.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Reactions, Governments
The governments of Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Mexico and the United States called for the cancellation of the Bolivarian government's proposed Constitutional Assembly and condemned the violence at poll centers in Venezuela performed by colectivos. Bolivian president Evo Morales rejected the referendum convened by the Venezuelan opposition and accused former Latin American presidents to participate as observers of said process of being "conspirators" of a plot of orchestrated "coup" against Nicolás Maduro.


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Reactions, Governments
The Venezuelan government declared the five former Latin American leaders that participated as international observers to the referendum as persona non grata. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox was banned on July 16. Former President of Colombia Andrés Pastrana, former President of Bolivia Jorge Quiroga and former Presidents of Costa Rica Laura Chinchilla and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez were banned on July 18. Foreign Minister Samuel Moncada said the Latin American leaders invited as observers were "political sicarios", "clowns" and "mercenaries" that "sell themselves to the highest bidder to go to various destinations and repeat what they are told"


2017 Venezuelan referendum, Reactions, Supranational bodies
The United Nations called on the Venezuelan government to respect the National Assembly's election as well as the will of the people. The European Union demanded the cancellation of Maduro's Constitutional Assembly following the referendum.


2017 Venezuelan regional elections
Regional elections were held in Venezuela on 15 October 2017 to elect state governors. The two main participants were the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition coalition and the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) alliance of the ruling Bolivarian government. The election resulted in a victory for the GPP, which won the majority of governorships. The GPP won 18 out of the 23 governorships, while the MUD won the remaining five. Four Democratic Action governors of five opposition governors elected decided to be sworn in under the Bolivarian government-led National Constituent Assembly despite promises to never recognize the body.


2017 Venezuelan regional elections, Irregularities, Delayed elections
Controversy arose surrounding on whether the election would be held or not since the government-leaning National Electoral Council (CNE) had not determined a date only two months ahead of the expected election date in December 2016, when the mandates of the governors of the 23 states of the country expired, with some believing that this is due to the belief that if elections were held, the ruling party, United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), would suffer one of its largest losses in over a decade. Luis Emilio Rondón, rector of the National Electoral Council (CNE), explained that the CNE has received complaints related to delays in the setting up of the polling stations and the arrival of their staff, as well as "technical problems with voting machines".


2017 Venezuelan regional elections, Irregularities, Delayed elections
On 18 October 2016, the president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, stated that regional elections would not be held until mid-2017, stating the delay was due to a so-called "economic war" and low oil prices. Government sources stated that the true reason of the delay was the hope that higher oil prices may raise the popularity of the PSUV.


2017 Venezuelan regional elections, Irregularities, Delayed elections
Lucena finally announced on 23 May 2017 that elections were to be held on 10 December 2017. However, during the 5th session of the 2017 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, it was later suggested to move ahead the elections into October 2017. A month before the elections, 15 October 2017 was selected as the date for regional elections.