Venezuelan Diaspora Demands Full Inclusion in Dialogue and Democratic Rebuilding

More than 95 civil society organizations and the multicultural activists’ association Voz y Expresión, known as Amavex, are demanding that Venezuela’s diaspora take part fully in any political dialogue, transition process and effort to rebuild democratic institutions. They also called for the immediate reopening of electoral registration outside Venezuela.

About 7.8 million Venezuelans live abroad, including roughly 5 million adults. Yet only 69,211 voters outside the country were eligible to vote in the 2024 presidential election, equal to about 1.4% of the adult Venezuelan population abroad.

The organizations attributed the limited participation to structural barriers, including insufficient consular capacity, difficulties obtaining identity documents and administrative and migration requirements. Their statement singled out the United States, where about 37,000 previously registered Venezuelans were excluded from the preliminary electoral register in 2024 because Venezuela lacked bilateral diplomatic relations with the country. The groups said that circumstance is not listed as a legal ground for exclusion under Article 34 of Venezuela’s Organic Law of Electoral Processes.

The proposed measures include permanently opening the overseas electoral register, accepting valid or expired Venezuelan identity cards and passports as alternative documents, recognizing different legal-status arrangements in host countries and publishing uniform, transparent requirements for consular offices. The organizations also called for honorary and mobile consulates, easier identity-document services and a unified digital platform for consular and electoral procedures.

They further demanded infrastructure that matches the size of the Venezuelan migration, including additional and mobile polling stations, trained staff, accredited international observers, public vote counting and publication of results. “The diaspora cannot be called at the end of a process that also belongs to it,” Amavex president Helene Villalonga said. “Millions of Venezuelans remain citizens with constitutional rights, and those rights must be guaranteed from the beginning: identity, documentation, political participation and safe conditions for returning.”

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The diaspora cannot be called at the end of a process that also belongs to it. Millions of Venezuelans remain citizens with constitutional rights, and those rights must be guaranteed from the beginning: identity, documentation, political participation and safe conditions for returning.