Venezuelan social organizations, led by the Tenants Movement, are denouncing that the Public Ministry and police forces are using threats of detention and criminal prosecution to force families to sign “delivery agreements” for their homes. These practices violate established legal procedures under the Law Against Arbitrary Vacancies of Housing (2011), which requires mediation and guarantees of due process.
– Coercion mechanisms:
– Prosecutors and police intimidate occupants to sign documents under the threat of “deprivation of liberty if they do not vacate”.
– The administrative route provided (conciliation through SUNAVI or Community Peace Justice) is omitted, and civil conflicts are criminalized as penal offenses of “invasion”.
– Victim Profile:
– 60% are seniors, 70% women, and 55% families with minors.
👵 Connection with the Public Ministry Program
The wave of evictions coincides with the program “The Public Ministry Protects the Elderly,” promoted by Attorney General Tarek William Saab. This plan, launched in April 2023, has “restored a thousand properties to the elderly in five months,” according to Saab’s announcement in September 2023, with emphasis on states like Anzoátegui and Aragua.
– Revealing Paradox:
– While the program promotes the “recovery of properties for the elderly,” statistics from social movements show that these same groups are the primary victims of coercive evictions. In many cases, heirs or third parties use legal structures to claim properties where families have lived for years, exploiting the vulnerability of the elderly claimants.
– Critical Example: Seniors are manipulated to file false complaints of “invasion,” while other elderly are criminalized for occupying homes that they lawfully own.
⚖️ Legal Contradiction and Economic Vulnerability
– Ignored Legal Framework:
– Constitutional Ruling No. 557 (April 2025) prohibits the use of criminal means for tenancy conflicts, requiring first exhausting civil or administrative avenues.
– The Lease Regularization Law (2011) states that eviction only proceeds after four months of unpaid rent and mediation through SUNAVI.
– Crisis among Seniors:
– 41% survive on pensions of $4.76 per month (equivalent to 130 bolívares), insufficient to cover a basic basket of $550.39. This precariousness facilitates their co-optation in real estate speculation schemes.
📢 Response from Social Movements
> “We are not invaders; we are people fighting for a dignified life. Criminalizing us is criminalizing poverty.”
Organizations like the Platform of the Inhabitants Movement and the Ezequiel Zamora Agrarian Coordinator demand:
1. Investigation of prosecutors and police who apply coercion.
2. Prioritization of Community Peace Justice, a mechanism promoted by the government to resolve conflicts without criminalization.
3. Alignment of institutions with the Plan of the Homeland 2025-2031, which declares housing a “human right, not a commodity”.
📌 Conclusion: A Program that Devours its Beneficiaries
The paradox is chilling: a plan designed to “protect the elderly” is being used to dispossess other seniors of their homes. While the State announces a thousand restorations of properties, social movements document hundreds of illegal evictions against the same vulnerable group. The consistency between social policy and institutional practice will be the ultimate test for a government that promised to revolutionize housing rights.