Is there a dictatorship in Venezuela because it seeks to regulate NGOs?
Published at: 16/08/2024 07:00 PM
Non-Governmental Organizations (
NGOs) have become an invasion mechanism with the
excuse of helping to alleviate welfare, service and social
development problems in communities affected by the foreign exploitation of their
resources. It is through these organizations that they manage to influence
communities and thus unbalance the region.
According to the nature of their
creation, NGOs are
independent, non-profit organizations that arise as a result of civil and
popular initiatives and are generally linked to social,
cultural, development or other projects that generate structural changes in
certain spaces, communities, regions or countries.
However, the National University of La Plata published, in its journal Scenarios,
an article called “New forms of intervention today: NGOs as a
strategy” by researchers Agustín
Zuccaro and Mariana Santín, in which they explain that
presented as a new form of interference that finds
its legitimacy in the media field: “It is the media that
give visibility to these new actors and who promote the excessive value
for the management of the social conflict characteristic of any society. They are
the mainstream media that state these forms of
participation as valid, considering that they are those where politics loses
its meaning (poverty, health, education and food)”.
The researchers added, that they
are spaces where one avoids discussing the history of these problems in order to
state that each subject is the architect of his destiny and in this sense the social and the collective are lost
as a value, giving strength to the political project of capitalism.
Once the functioning of these organizations in several countries of the world has been
reviewed and
according to revised complaints, there are many cases where the
interference of NGOs in the political
structures of the country in which they are located and which also serve to launder money and finance
terrorist groups is evident.
This is why national,
regional and international institutions have been created to
monitor the use of the resources provided for their operation.
Structures for the control of resources managed by NGOs
First, the
Egmont Group Financial Intelligence Unit
(FIU) was created, which is an international entity with 150 affiliated countries and is
responsible for receiving reports from its members on suspicious
money-laundering operations provided by financial institutions and other
entities, analyzing them and transmitting them both to the competent authorities and to the justice service to
FIUs from
other countries and information on these operations, in order to protect, prevent
and combat any illegal activity.
As a global organization,
it facilitates and promotes the exchange of information, knowledge and cooperation
between the FIUs of the countries that comprise it.
It provides a platform for securely exchanging
knowledge and financial intelligence.
Venezuela belongs to the
Egmon t Group through the National Financial Intelligence Unit
(UNIF), which processes and analyzes Suspicious Activity Reports
(RAS) submitted by the various subjects
obliged and designated by the Organic Law against organized crime and terrorist
financing, in order to disclose to the Public Prosecutor's Office and law enforcement
authorities, information that may evidence possible
punishable acts and the identification of their perpetrators, as well as the information
they require to carry out their investigations.
In the same way, in the exercise
of its functions, it will process and disclose strategic information useful to
the national office against organized crime and
terrorist financing, supervisory bodies and bodies and the fulfillment of the purposes of the
State in general.
Thus, in order to ensure the
good use of their resources and that they carry out activities associated with social assistance and
development, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
(PSUV) presented for the first discussion in the National Assembly on January 24, 2023, the bill on oversight, regularization,
action and financing of non-governmental and related organizations ,
which will reinforce the Venezuelan legal system in this area.
Our country is also a member
of the
Caribbean Financial Action Group (GAFIC), which is a regional organization of
States and Territories of the Caribbean Basin that have agreed to implement common measures against
money laundering and terrorist financing. Since September 2001,
it has deepened its focus
on regulating financial services and charitable organizations.
To this end, he created Recommendation 8 in which he warned countries about the
“particular vulnerability” of NGOs
to be misused to raise, move funds or provide support to terrorist organizations.
In addition, this group encourages countries to implement supervisory and regulatory mechanisms with
the clear objective of confronting illegal activities.
This is why, in order to
strengthen the system for controlling the use of resources and their diversion to
activities associated with terrorism and money laundering, the Law
on the Control, Regularization, Action and Financing of Non-Governmental and related
Organizations was approved
last Thursday in the
National Constituent Assembly (ANC), with the objective of “promoting and regulating the
the regime of civil organization in Venezuela as a
private activity of public relevance, governed by the principles of Venezuelan law
. For this purpose, a uniform system is established for its creation,
registration, organization, operation, administration and development, as well as
to ensure transparency in its economic and financial management,
including the sources of its funding.”
The intention then is to
be able to monitor and monitor the use of foreign resources allocated to
NGOs so that the precepts described in their objectives are truly fulfilled
and, in this way, to eliminate the
diversion of funds to be used both in destabilization activities and in terrorist actions within our country
.
AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team