Statements

Remarks to UN Security Council from Transparency International Venezuela

01/07/2026

Earlier this week the Executive Director of the Venezuela chapter of Transparency International—currently operating in exile—was among the first to brief the United Nations Security Council on the impact and implications of the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife for the Venezuelan people. You can find her written remarks addressing these developments below.

Good morning, ambassadors, state representatives, and government officials. Thank you for the opportunity to present the results of investigations conducted by Transparency Venezuela regarding the situation in my country.
 
 I have organized the information into five points to make the most of the time I have.
 
1. The large-scale transnational corruption network originating in Venezuela has a presence with companies, properties, and operations in 73 countries worldwide. We have identified hundreds of cases. In the justice systems of 30 countries alone, 172 cases of large-scale corruption are being prosecuted, with 60% of them involving more than 72 billion dollars. Nicolás Maduro and his family are the hub of the network and the structural bridge between sub-networks. Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) has been the central instrument, directly or indirectly involved in 90% of the corruption cases.
 
2. National and international criminal organizations have a symbiotic relationship with the Nicolás Maduro administration, sharing capabilities and using state structures to facilitate, support, promote, protect, and direct illicit operations. The illicit economies of gold, drugs, extortion, and human trafficking reached $8 billion in 2024, according to our estimates. Of the reported gold production, only 20% enters the national treasury; the rest goes to the private accounts of allies of high-ranking government officials. This mining process has destroyed areas of our Bolívar State, Canaima National Park, and parts of our Amazon rainforest. To launder money from corruption and organized crime, the network shares operators, structures, and sophisticated money laundering mechanisms, using cryptocurrencies on a large scale since 2021.
 
3. Widespread corruption and illicit activities are among the reasons for the reduction in state revenue and, consequently, public spending, quality employment, and basic services. The country’s economy has been in acute crisis for over a decade. There is also no money to pay the debt, which now exceeds $167 billion. Venezuela has been in selective default, a technical default, since 2017, with China being its largest creditor, to whom we still owe more than $15 billion.
 
4. Venezuelans have had to learn to live with limited water and electricity in much of the country, including Caracas and other cities, and to protect themselves from daily and widespread extortion by armed groups from Colombia, criminal organizations, and state officials. Millions of families have only one meal a day, with low caloric content, and malnutrition rates worsen year after year. Humanitarian programs are insufficient.
 
5. The system of checks and balances and the independence of the branches of government have been eliminated for decades. The group currently in power in Venezuela has captured the entire institutional structure, beginning with the justice system, the oil industry (the main source of revenue), and oligopolies in key economic sectors. To maintain control and impunity for these illicit activities, it employs an increasingly atrocious system of repression. There are approximately 1,000 political prisoners—a number that fluctuates due to a terrifying revolving door of justice. By the end of the year, the whereabouts of 86 of these prisoners were unknown, and 26 people had died in state custody during torture or due to lack of medical attention. The Venezuelan Fact-Finding Mission has documented hundreds of cases of torture, and this has not stopped.
 
To change this reality, we need an honest and transparent state that is accountable, guarantees the rule of law and human rights, protects public resources for the benefit of all, without privileges, and has an autonomous and independent justice system. We need investment in construction projects that will allow us to pay our debts and grow sustainably. The will of the Venezuelan people to live in freedom and democracy must be respected.
 
Finally, a plea: the immediate release of all political prisoners.
Thank you very much.
Mercedes De Freitas 
Executive Director, Transparencia Venezuela