How do NGOs behave in Venezuela?

Published at: 16/02/2024 05:00 PM

A significant number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) changed their purpose and benefit objective to help social sectors at risk to actively participate as subjects in national political activity.

Since the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution, a group of them ceased to be Non-Profit Organizations (OSFL) to become NGOs that receive, dispose of and execute income from unauditable national and international sources, with which they cover personnel expenses, promotion, lobbying and manipulation of public opinion.

NGOs that participate in national politics have all the characteristics of structures that serve as a platform to organize, finance, plan and execute destabilization activities, because they have their own voice, legal and functional structure, resource capacity, corporate image, slogans and slogans, specific programmatic agenda, political objectives, alliances and political allies, and they also carry out programming of diverse political activities both nationally and internationally; this is demonstrated in calls such as the one held on January 23, 2011 called “Take a photo against the dictatorship”, made by A World Without a Gag and PROVEA, as published by Globovision on January 3, 2011.

In this way, these organizations carry out political activities opposing the National Government, identify themselves with the government program of the Bureau of Democratic Unity (MUD) and with the opinions of various international bodies that are under North American imperial rule, such as the Venezuelan Penal Forum, PROVEA , COFAVIC, Rescue Venezuela, Refugees Without Borders or Citizen Control; the latter implicated in crimes for which the Public Ministry (MP) recently initiated an investigation against its president, Rocío San Miguel, who was charged classified as treason, intentional homicide classified as attempted in the person of the President of the Republic, intentional homicide classified as attempted in the person of the governor of the state of Táchira, terrorism and association in a unveiled maneuver called Operation White Armband.

However, as expressed by sociologist Gladys Rojas, in her research called “Metamorphosis of NGOs: The Socio-Political Role of NGOs in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela during the period 1999-2014” at the School of Social Management of the Ministry of Popular Power of Planning, “the intention is not for any reason to create the erroneous idea that all NGOs maintain the same behavior, on the contrary, we want to affirm that due to the structural contradictions of the capitalist system and to the struggles undertaken by the Peoples of the world in defense of their universal rights and for the conquest of greater spaces of political and economic power, the capitalist system has brought about changes in its dynamics at the global, regional and national levels, generating changes in conception and assigning new roles and functions to these types of organizations that, since their inception, assume an active dynamic as a benefactor first, and then as a social subject that interferes with socio-political dynamics with clear and defined intentions to participate in the struggle for political power”.

In most cases, Venezuelan NGOs stopped looking, some time ago, like others in the world. An example of this statement is the case of those existing in the Czech Republic where all social organizations are recognized and defined that “pursue humanitarian purposes, are independent of the public administration, have no lucrative desire, rely on volunteers and their intention is to improve some aspect of society. When referring to an NGO, any of the following legal forms are identified: association, foundation, cooperative, among others” , as explained by the social activist, Ludmila Svobodová, in the article “Non-Governmental Organizations as a Political Alternative” published on the Radio Prague International portal.

In our country, in recent years, the creation, organization and operation of NGOs has developed under a complex framework of relationships and functional organizational structures of a pyramidal and cellular type that links national subjects with the international right.

In this task, local and transnational NGOs such as Amnesty International, Human Right Watch, Transparency International, International Coalition of Organizations for Human Rights in the Americas assume the role of guardianship and promotion bodies, achieving that they are recognized before the Organization of the United Nations (UN) under the figure of “permanent consultation organizations ” of the various commissions that deal with human rights issues, exercising almost the same rights and benefits as member States.

Evolution of NGOs in Venezuela

When we resumed the research of the sociologist Gladys Rojas, we were able to find a summary in which she explained how the nature of the actions of these organizations has changed over time in our country:

• 1930-1959: In general, they were created by the main economic groups and carried out environmental protection activities, charitable activities, as well as public welfare.
• 1960-1980: During this period, the first boom in NGO growth occurred in Venezuela. The application of populist policies, aimed at distributing a small portion of public revenues to meet the socio-economic needs of large sectors in situations of poverty, through programs of social targeting, allowed NGOs to achieve an important position as organizations with certain expertise, capacity to manage public resources and manage projects in the social area such as: education, economic support for microentrepreneurs, environmental protection and health, among other aspects.
• 1981-1998: During this last period of the Fourth Republic, the country's economic, social and political crisis situation worsened, so that issues such as corruption and the violation of human and citizen rights acquired relevance on the domestic agenda as a result of the repressive actions carried out by the State to try to contain popular discontent, the product of neoliberal fundo-monetary policies that were being implemented. It is precisely these last two (2) areas in which there was significant growth of NGOs in Venezuela.
• 1999-2023: The new constitutional framework favored the overcrowding of NGOs in the country, to the point that the number of existing organizations up to that time doubled. During this period, they diversified their areas of social management, took on new forms of organization such as networks, coalitions and alliances; they specialized in the management of training programs and projects, research, legal advice, as well as technical assistance on issues related to human and citizen rights, but assuming direct participation, as subjects of power, allied to imperial sectors and interests abroad and to the private business sectors of the political right at home. This led them to participate in a complex and recurring socio-political dynamic characterized by destabilization, guarimbas, terrorism and coups d'etat.

After reviewing the links and behaviors of these organizational structures, it can be concluded that the emergence of NGOs during the governments of the Fourth Republic was not the real reason for “the urgent needs of the most impoverished sectors”, but rather the protection of the interests of large national and imperial economic groups, later demonstrated with more commitment since the arrival of the Bolivarian Revolution.

AMELYREN BASABE/ DECK WRITING