Venezuela's Suicide Figures Go Unnoticed Amid Mental Health Crisis

In Venezuela, a country that has not released official mortality figures since 2016, the suffering related to mental health often goes unnoticed. Despair and depression are experienced in isolation, with radical decisions to end one's life only coming to light when it is too late. Amidst stigma and taboo, warning signs are frequently missed, contributing to a mental health emergency where anxiety and insomnia are normalized. Without public policies or reliable data for study, the pain remains a private matter, often masked by a facade of resilience. Suicides are a silent reality that goes largely unspoken. The Ministry of Health is a decade behind in publishing official statistics, hindering the ability to monitor and study a topic that concerns the scientific community. This lack of data makes it impossible to determine trends or changes in suicide rates within the country, which has entered a "new political moment" this year. The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence (OVV) has undertaken the rigorous task of approximating suicide figures in this challenging context. Their monitoring, based on sub-registrations from media reports and unofficial sources, reached 2025.