Facing the possibility of armed conflict with the United States, Venezuela’s government appears to be encouraging its citizens to spy on each other using an updated mobile app to report suspicious people or activity.
According to the American CNN network, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro launched the application, called VenApp, in 2022 as a hybrid application, integrating a messaging service with a hotline that enables citizens to report problems with utility services, such as electricity and water outages.
The app is now being used as a tool for Venezuelans to report anything to the government that it may deem inflammatory or seditious, prompting concern from Maduro’s opponents and human rights groups about the possibility of an escalation of political arrests.
“This is a serious concern for privacy, freedom of expression and security, as it reinforces a system of social surveillance and militarization of the public system,” the online activist group Venezuela Sin Veltro wrote in a statement.
The Venezuelan Ministry of Information did not respond to a request for comment on the criticism directed at the application.
Fearing that American pressure, including President Donald Trump’s authorization of secret CIA operations in Venezuelan territory, would spark unrest in his country, Maduro last month called on the armed forces to supervise the creation of “a new application that enables the people to safely report everything they hear and read.”
Within a week, the popular app was updated to do what Maduro ordered.
Adding to the government’s fears that the United States might seek “regime change” in the South American country, the US military deployed warships, fighter planes, and up to 10,000 soldiers in the southern Caribbean Sea, ostensibly to combat drug trafficking.
The United States accuses Maduro of drug smuggling, but the latter denies this, and says that Washington is using this as a pretext to “impose regime change” in Caracas with the aim of seizing Venezuelan oil.
More than 15 American air strikes on boats in the Caribbean resulted in the deaths of at least 65 people in recent weeks, the last of which was on Saturday, which sparked criticism from the governments of countries in the region.
Experts say that the US attacks, which began in early September, amount to extrajudicial killings, even if the targets were known drug traffickers.
Washington has not yet provided any evidence proving that the targets it struck were drug smuggling or posed a threat to the United States.
