The cancellation of passports as a repression measure by Chavismo against journalists, human rights defenders, and dissenters is a tactic implemented by Nicolás Maduro’s regime, according to a report from the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) in collaboration with other civil society organizations and specialists.
This practice has become systemic in the post-electoral context of 2024—the presidential elections held on July 28, 2024, in which Edmundo González Urrutia won, while Maduro claimed victory. Its aim is to silence dissent and hinder opposition voices’ participation in international forums, concurrently limiting the physical space for these individuals to operate.
The report documents over 40 cases that expose how the Venezuelan dictatorship silences and attacks affected journalists and human rights defenders in 2024. Interviews, report analyses, and regulations provide additional context.
It notes that this practice often extends to the immediate family members of those affected. Such actions are not only illegal under Venezuelan and international law but also violate fundamental rights like freedom of movement, expression, association, and personal integrity, leading to devastating psychological, professional, and economic consequences for the victims.
General Context of Repression in Venezuela
In its report, CEJIL documents and analyzes how passport cancellations in Venezuela have turned into a strategy for repression and silencing by the State, specifically targeting human rights defenders, journalists, and activists.
Though not new, this practice, while pre-existing, intensified significantly after the presidential elections on July 28, 2024. The context for this action is the deterioration of the rule of law in Venezuela, where power is concentrated in the Executive branch, which systematically employs security forces and government-affiliated groups to repress dissent.
Patterns of repression include arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, cruel treatment, harassment, defamation, and the misuse of laws to criminalize the defense of human rights and press freedom. The report cites emblematic cases like Rocío San Miguel, Carlos Julio Rojas, Kennedy Tejera, Carlos Correa Barros, and Julio Balza.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) documented 36 instances of passport cancellations in 2024, labeling it as retaliation against those working to defend and promote human rights and democracy.
Passport Cancellations in Venezuela: A New Repressive Tool
This practice impacts individuals both within and outside the country.
The CEJIL report states that the cancellation of passports in Venezuela is a “new tactic of silencing” to “inhibit citizen participation and public debate,” especially in response to the electoral mobilization of 2024.
This measure affects both those inside and outside the country, impacting the mobility of over 7 million Venezuelans in the diaspora. The Administrative Service for Identification, Migration, and Foreign Affairs (SAIME), under the Ministry of Popular Power for Interior Relations, Justice, and Peace (MPPRIJP), is responsible for these cancellations, representing a growing role for Maduro’s regime in the tasks of security and intelligence, leading selective and mass repressive operations.
Arbitrariness of Cancellations
The study highlights that the Organic Law on Identification does not mention the possibility of passport cancellations. Decree No. 4.571 of 2021 allows cancellations only due to theft, loss, damage, alteration of data, or by administrative or judicial order. None of the reported cases of passport cancellations in Venezuela were based on these grounds.
This means that the cancellations lack legal foundation and fail to satisfy the principles of necessity, suitability, and proportionality required by international law.
Furthermore, there is no justification or official notification of cancellation decisions to those affected, who only learn about it when attempting to travel or checking their status online. The right to defense is not guaranteed, nor is there an opportunity to contest the decision.
Profile of the Victims of Passport Cancellations in Venezuela
The cancellation of passports in Venezuela increased significantly within just a month and a half after the elections on July 28, 2024, with 35 of the 40 documented cases revealed in August.
The victims include not only high-profile public figures but also individuals with “medium or low exposure in the social and professional spheres” (75% of those interviewed), suggesting broader surveillance.
This pattern affects individuals with backgrounds in journalism, human rights advocacy, unions, civil society organizations, international bodies, academia, cultural or artistic expression, and public denunciations. In some instances, cancellations extend to immediate family members, including spouses and children.
Reports include arbitrary detentions, detentions without access to lawyers, short-term forced disappearances, and severe interrogations involving questions unrelated to the cancellations. DGCIM officials, some masked, conduct interrogations and phone checks in an SAIME office.
Authorities offer no explanations for the cancellations and have ceased high-level public statements regarding them, unlike in previous periods. Lawmaker Iris Varela proposed cancelling documents of businessmen who “betray the homeland.”
Consequences of Passport Cancellations
The consequences of passport cancellations in Venezuela are felt in:
- Mobility: avoidance of airports, suspension of international and domestic flights, and in 4 cases, leaving the country through “alternative routes.” Those outside cannot return.
- Psychological and physical: 100% of interviewees report “fear, stress, rage, anguish, anxiety, depression, and even in one case, suicidal ideation.” This relates to a “sense of insecurity, confinement, and surveillance.” Psychological issues have resulted in physical health problems.
- Social and community: rupture of social fabric, growing mistrust, and some choosing to “distance themselves from family to avoid putting them at risk.”
- Professional: 86% report reduced or altered activities related to advocacy and communication. Contracts, conference plans, scholarships, and international advocacy efforts are canceled.
- Economic: loss of investment in passports, travel expenses, costs of rapid exit from the country, and difficulties in fundraising for human rights defense and independent media.
- Administrative and migratory: difficulty completing procedures abroad (visas, apostilled documents), leaving exiles in extreme vulnerability.
Legal Consequences and Violations of Human Rights
In legal terms and regarding human rights, the consequences include:
Freedom of movement and residence: compromised by restricting mobility within and outside the country, affecting the ability to travel, reunite with family, and access services.
Economic, social, and cultural rights: impacted by reduced professional opportunities and economic losses.
Personal integrity: constant threats and the sense of surveillance undermine mental and physical health.
Family protection: hinders family reunification and causes emotional harm.
Freedom of expression, association, and defense of human rights: cancellations are used to silence journalists and activists, promoting self-censorship and further weakening the country’s democratic structure.
Due process and judicial protection: no process exists to decide on cancellations, decisions are neither motivated nor notified, and no effective legal remedies are available.
Recommendations
To the Venezuelan State: eliminate administrative and judicial measures that undermine fundamental rights; stop intimidations and reprisals; ensure respect for constitutional and international rights; guarantee speedy and transparent access to identity document procedures.
To the international community: condemn passport cancellations in Venezuela in forums like the UN and OAS; promote regional agreements to recognize expired/canceled documents; request bodies like the IACHR and ICC to include this practice in their monitoring mechanisms.
To UNHCR and IOM: promote exceptional measures to recognize expired/canceled documents; facilitate migration regularization; develop support programs (temporary documents, humanitarian aid, access to refuge/asylum); and coordinate with the ICRC to issue humanitarian travel documents.
To receiving States: recognize expired/canceled documents for legal procedures; expedite refugee processes; expand temporary regularization mechanisms; collaborate with agencies for access to essential services and regularization; coordinate regional policies to facilitate mobility and respect human rights.
To businesses and international financial institutions: create support funds for affected individuals; finance safe transports for at-risk individuals; provide technical and logistical support to human rights organizations; promote ACNUR’s facilitation of humanitarian travel document issuance in coordination with the ICRC.