The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, repealed with a stroke of the pen seven Chavista institutions from the Office of the Presidency, four of them created by the Administration of Nicolás Maduro. Among the institutions eliminated by decree 5,248 are social programs—known as Missions—and an intelligence agency. Meanwhile, the NGO Foro Penal updated the number of releases of political prisoners to 444, since January 8.

First modification: 02/16/2026 - 16:44

The president in charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, decreed a shakeup within the Chavista institutional framework on Sunday, February 15 with a multiple closure of entities, including social programs - known as missions - and an intelligence body, some inherited from the recently overthrown Nicolás Maduro.

Through presidential decree 5,248, the interim president ordered the liquidation of the Strategic Center for Security and Protection of the Homeland (CESPPA), created in 2013 under the then Administration of Nicolás Maduro with the objective of analyzing information on "internal and external enemy activity." Organizations, such as Reporters Without Borders or journalistic unions, had accused this entity of hindering access to public information.

The other entities inaugurated by Maduro, the Chavista leader arrested in the United States under accusations of drug trafficking, that have been closed with a stroke of the pen by Rodríguez are the New Frontier Socialist Peace Mission Foundation, the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement Foundation of the General Active Reserve in Chief Félix Antonio Velásquez and the Robert Serra Youth Mission Foundation of the Homeland, created between 2015 and 2016.

The Missions in Venezuela, designed at the beginning of the century by the then government of Hugo Chávez, were endowed with million-dollar budgets in order to execute the social policies of the military leader. However, its maintenance became difficult over the years, after the collapse of the price of oil and the collapse of the national economy. Sectors of the opposition point out that they have become a focus of corruption in the Chavista State.

Rodríguez transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "the execution of the aims and objectives" of the now defunct New Frontier of Peace mission, aimed at protecting border communities from "paramilitarism, drug trafficking, kidnapping, smuggling and any manifestation contrary to social order and peace."

Read also 25 years of Chavismo in Venezuela: a crisis that the revolution did not anticipate

In addition, Miraflores closed the Propatria 2000 Foundation and the Presidential Office of Special Plans and Projects (OPPPE), projects of the late former president Hugo Chávez, as well as the José Félix Ribas Foundation (Fundaribas), created in 1986, during the government of Jaime Lusinchi.

The entities belong to the Ministry of the Office of the Presidency, whose leader the interim president replaced in January with Captain Juan Escalona, ​​a former member of Maduro's security team.

The presidential decree, which also transfers other bodies from the Office of the Presidency to various State portfolios, points out that the Executive "must adapt its organizational structure to the new guidelines and policies of social order", in a context in which "the need to make pertinent changes that seek the satisfaction of collective interests is imposed."

"The suppression and liquidation process will last ninety days and will be in charge of a liquidation board," the document indicates.

To display this content from X (Twitter), you must allow audience measurement and advertising cookies.

Rodríguez's announcement is linked to a series of changes that have followed the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, which include appointments, modifications to the names of some institutions, the reform of an oil law and now also the closure of public entities.

The policy of the president in charge, who denies collaborating with Washington despite Donald Trump's affirmation of this, has been defined by the opposition party Primero Justicia (PJ) as the "dismantling of Chavismo in the hands of Chavismo."

The political group demanded that "each step of the liquidation process be made known," so that the announcement does not remain "solely a document."

Read alsoDelcy Rodríguez remodels the Venezuelan Executive

444 political prisoners released since January 8: Foro Penal

Foro Penal, the leading NGO in the defense of people considered political prisoners in Venezuela, updated the number of releases on Sunday, February 15, to 444, a count that the entity began on January 8, five days after the fall of Maduro, when a considerable release of an undetermined number of prisoners was announced.

The entity still counts 644 political prisoners, including 185 soldiers, 80 women and a teenager.

On February 6, the president of the National Assembly, the Chavista Jorge Rodríguez, promised the release of "everyone" once an amnesty law was approved, which is still under discussion, although he stated that "at the latest" it would be closed last Friday, February 13.

However, the Legislature, controlled by Chavismo, postponed the second and final debate of the law to next week, amid disagreements over an article that requires those prosecuted and convicted to appear before Justice.

Foro Penal does not consider releases in cases in which, after leaving a detention center, the person remains deprived of liberty under house arrest, as happened a week ago with the legal advisor of the largest opposition coalition, Perkins Rocha, or with the leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, a former deputy close to María Corina Machado.

Rocha has remained under house arrest since his release from prison, while Guanipa was imprisoned again, the same day he was released from prison, accused by the Prosecutor's Office of failing to comply with his precautionary measures. Finally, the opponent's family announced on Tuesday that he was already under house arrest at his residence in Maracaibo (Zulia).

While some prisoners continue to drip out of the Chavista prisons, relatives of the detainees gather outside these facilities, waiting for hours and camping out in search of information from their loved ones or hoping that he or she will be the one to come out when the door opens again.

Since Saturday, a dozen women have gone on hunger strike outside a police command in Caracas. Several have already suffered health problems, of which one of them fainted a couple of times and another received intravenous serum, detailed the EFE news agency.

"After more than 36 hours on hunger strike, the relatives of political prisoners begin to decompensate, while they wait for the release of their loved ones," described the opposition party Primero Justicia on platform

Read alsoThe Venezuelan Parliament postpones the second debate of the Amnesty Law

With EFE and local media

Related keywords

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.