Venezuelan civil society information initiatives

Four Venezuelan non-governmental organizations—Acceso a la Justicia, Observatorio Venezolano de Fake News, Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón (JEP), and Observatorio de Universidades—launched ‘Pulso Venezuela’. This joint web platform is designed to document and disseminate information regarding human rights, justice, disinformation, and higher education to counter what organizers describe as an ‘information blockade’ and state-driven opacity.

Martha Tineo, coordinator of JEP, characterized the platform as a technical response to the ‘institutional encirclement and criminalization of human rights defenders’. The coalition intends to use collected data to report violations to international mechanisms and diplomatic representations.

Opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia subsequently expressed support for both Pulso Venezuela and the Red de Periodismo y Medios Independientes (REMI), a collaborative network of 13 media outlets focused on independent journalism and fact-checking. González Urrutia noted that because of a lack of institutional guarantees, the responsibility to preserve information has shifted to journalists, NGOs, and academic institutions.