History of Venezuela (1999–present)
Chavista Venezuela officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela or the Fifth Republic of Venezuela is the current Venezuelan state that has existed since 1999.
From the 1970s to 1992 Hugo Chávez was a member of the Venezuelan Military and was growing more influential as his military career went on. Chavez launched a failed coup attempt in 1992 and years later on 21 October 1997 would officially form the political party called the Fifth Republic Movement. Chavéz and his party would run in the 1998 elections where he would be elected president on the 6th of December 1998 and inaugurated on February 2nd 1999.
Following his inauguration, the Country would see sweeping and radical shifts in social policy, moving away from the last government's officially embracing a free-market economy and liberalization reform principles and towards income redistribution and social welfare programs. Alongside the mass Nationalization of Private stuff and Businesses. Additionally, Chávez dramatically shifted Venezuela's traditional foreign policy alignment. Instead of continuing Venezuela's past alignment with the United States and European strategic interests, Chávez promoted alternative development and integration policies targeted to the Global South.
Also following Chavéz's Inauguration, is that there would be Three Referendums in 1999, first in April 25, second in July 25, and finally, a Constitutional referendum in December 15. A New Constitution would be Adopted on December 20, 1999, officially Establishing the current Venezuelan state. On 29 January 2000 Isaías Rodríguez would be sworn in as the Vice President of Venezuela making him the latest Vice President since José Vicente Gómez Bello in May 1928. Between 11 and 14 April 2002, there was a Coup Attempt that removed Chavéz from Office which led to Pedro Carmona becoming acting President on April 12. Carmona's Acting Presidency did not last long as a Day later on April 13, Carmona would be removed from office and be replaced by a Chávez Loyalist called Diosdado Cabello. On 14 April 2002, Cabello, would reinstate Chavéz as the President of Venezuela. On 15 August 2004 there was a Recall referendum on whether Chavéz should be removed from office or not with the select majority of the Voters voting against removing Chavéz from Office.
In 2008, the first reports emerged of minor shortages in the Country. Later on 15 February 2009, a Referendum was held on whether to Abolish term limits with voters voting yes. The shortages were worsening to a point that the Venezuelan Crisis began on 2 June 2010. In late 2012 or very early 2013, Shortages were starting to pretty notable with the Scarcity of Toilet Papers inside stores.
On 5 March 2013, Chávez died in office and was succeeded by his Vice President Nicolás Maduro on the same day, Maduro would gain a slim majority in the 14 April 2013 special election which Triggered some protests in 2013. He would be officially sworn in on 19 April 2013 and has ruled by decree for the majority of the period between 19 November 2013 through 2018. During the Maduro Administration, the Venezuelan Crisis and Shortages intensified following the Dakazo Panic buying in late 2013 and the Government's continued Prise Control Policies by the Chávez previous Chavez administration, resulting in the culmination of Major Anti–Government Protests on 12 February 2014. The worsening Crisis in 2015 also exacerbated the Venezuelan refugee crisis as well as resulting in the Victory of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática in the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election. Later in 2016, Hyperinflation in the Country would become very prevalent possibly due to causes like Money–printing and large Deficit spending. In 2017, at the Height of the Venezuelan Crisis, Maduro Declared a self-coup where he and his Cronies consolidated power and weakened the Opposition's role in the Government which triggered Large scale protests and resulted in a Nationwide One Day Movement involving a few Millions of Venezuelans and after that, the First Trump administration Imposed Sanctions on Venezuela and after that on late July 2017, a Constituent Assembly election was held with 8 Million (According to the Government) or less than 4 Million (According to Independent sources) voting in the referendum with GPPSB Members (Mainly Delcy Rodriguez) claiming an absolute major victory.
Elections were held in 2018 with Maduro claiming Victory in the Election, claiming over 60% of Vote against Progressive Social Democratic candidate Henri Falcon and the Centrist Christian Democratic candidate with some if not many Describing the elections as rigged. On 10 January 2019, Maduro would be inaugurated again following his 2018 victory, triggering the Venezuelan presidential crisis. Later on 23 January during the 61st Anniversary of the deposition of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Juan Guaidó would be sworn in as interim president and Massive protests were held in support of Guaidó's Interim government against Maduro. Some countries were divided on who was the Venezuelan president with Western countries such as the United States, Canada, and others recognising Guaidó while Eastern countries such as Russia, Iran, Cuba, And others recognising Maduro. In the late 2010s, Venezuela also started dollarizing its economy in order to solve its economic crisis, hyperinflation crisis, and shortages in the country. In 2019, the shortages in Venezuela have largely ended. In March 2020, the first Trump Administration would issue a 15 Million Dollar Bounty on Maduro. On early 2022, hyperinflation in the country would largely end. On 5 January 2023, Juan Guaidó resigned as disputed president after announcing in late 2022 that he would resign as disputed president and during his announcement, he also urged Maduro to hold free, fair, and fresh elections.
On 23 October 2023, Venezuela has started seeing escalating tensions with its eastern neighbour Guyana over the region of Guayana Esequiba and became very notable on 3 December 2023 when President Maduro held a Referendum on whether to annex Essequibo region or not. The escalating tensions ended in mid-2024 and additionally earlier in late 2023 after winning the 2024 PUD/MUD Primaries by a massive landside, María Corina Machado announced that she would be running against Maduro in the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election but in Spring 2024 her candidacy was rejected and was banned from running for president fro 15 Years for alleged ownership of Machine guns and because of that, Edmundo González replaced her as a runner against the Incumbent Party and the results, Maduro claimed victory in the election which was widely considered as rigged because the CNE refused to show the State and Municipal results at all while ConVzla showed the entire state results and most of the municipal results and also because the Opposition installed poll watchers in 82% of Voting stations inside the Country to reveal the actual results of the 2024 election which resulted in widespread anti–government protests. Some countries were also divided on their response to the 2024 elections with Western countries rejecting the results while Eastern countries congratulated Maduro. On 10 January 2025, the anti–government protests largely ended with Maduro's third inauguration which also sparked the second Venezuelan presidential crisis and also made the outgoing Biden administration official Antony Blinken increase Maduro's bounty from 15 million dollars to 25 million dollars and resulted in western countries imposing new sanctions on new Venezuelan Indevidous.
On 7 August 2025, tensions between the United States and Venezuela escalated when the Second Trump Administration's Attorney General Pam Bondi Announced she was doubling Maduro's Bounty from 25 Million Dollars a few Months earlier, to 50 Million Dollars in charges such as alleged Smuggling of Cocaine and Fentanyl as well having alleged strong ties tp the Sinaloa Cartel, the Tren de Aragua Cartel, and the Cartel of the Suns, and other charges related to alleged drug trafficking. In August 2025, the United States deployed its navy in mass including its large ship, the USS Gerald Ford into the Caribbean. On September 1, 2025, the United States launched Operation Southern Spear by targeting boats that allegedly had drugs inside them. Tensions continued to escalate between the U.S. and Venezuela with the United States installing the CIA in Venezuela in Mid-October 2025, when tensions escalated, Maduro released numerous statements saying that he and Venezuela did not want war at all and that his country is not a threat to the United States and the West. Tensions continued to escalate in November to December 2025 with the U.S. imposing a naval blockade and a no-fly zone over Venezuela and even seizing an oil boat in December 2025. On 10 October 2025, Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize and officially had a ceremony for it on 10 December 2025.
On 3 January 2026 after months escalating tensions as well as planning and preparing, the United States launched a series of Airstrikes on Government facilities, Air Defense systems, Ports, Military Buildings, etc.. Minutes after airstrikes happened, Maduro declared a State of emergency in response and a few Hours after the Maduro and his Wife Cilia Flores were captured in a Snatch and Grab operation by U.S. forces and were sent to trial in NYC following that Some if not many GPPSB officials condemned the strikes with Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López describing strikes as Illegal under International law. Following the strikes, The Venezuelan Collectivos became much more active in the streets of Caracas arresting anyone who supported or had a bit Sympathy towards Maduro's Capture while the government also released also released more than Hundred of political prisoners. On 5 January 2026, after not officially being president for 2 Day, long time Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was officially sworn in as acting President of Venezuela with it being Oath Administered by Her brother and contested National Assembly President Jorge. The strikes on Venezuela triggered Mixed reactions across the world with some people including many in the Venezuelan diaspora celebrating in countries like the United States, Spain, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and other places, while opposition to the strikes and Captures were organised and paid by many Communist Movements and Parties and by The People's Forum Affiliate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in America. After Maduro's Capture, Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado called on Opposition president Edmundo González to assume the duties of the President of Venezuela and on mid-late January 2026 Machado Visited the United States to meet President Donald Trump to present her Nobel Prize. And addition to reactions to the strikes, politicians also reacted to the strikes with some Conservative wave politicians like Javier Milei of Argentina, Daniel Noboa of Ecuador, Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, Santiago Peña of Paraguay, Jose Jeri of Peru, José Raúl Mulino of Panama, and others supporting it while Pink tide politicians like Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba, Xiomara Castro of Honduras, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, Gabriel Boric of Chile, and others condemning the strikes while Some politicians were Neutral on the strikes and Capture of Maduro and Flores including Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, Christian Stocker of Austria, Irfaan Ali of Guyana, Rodrigo Paz of Bolivia, Lee Jae Myung of the Republic of Korea, and some others.