January 27 2026, 08:15 
Nicolás Maduro, the recently ousted president of Venezuela, rose to power as a socialist promising greater financial security and progressive public policies to strengthen his country. However, U.S. economic sanctions and failed financial policies have turned Venezuela into one of the poorest South American countries, as well as one with the fewest protections for its LGBTQ+ citizens.
With his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, now in charge of running the country, it’s likely that the anti-LGBTQ+ practices of Maduro’s administration will continue. This article provides an overview of Maduro’s record on LGBTQ+ rights, the effect they’ve had on LGBTQ+ people, and why the situation isn’t likely to improve, even despite his removal from power.
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LGBTQ+ rights in Venezuela: The fight against discrimination and inequality
A quick timeline of Maduro’s rule and collapse
Born in a working-class family in Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas, Maduro amassed political strength by founding workers’ unions and joining the socialist political movement founded by Venezuelan president
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Maduro was elected to Venezuela’s legislature in 1998, was appointed as Maduro’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006, and served in that role until he became Venezuela’s vice president in October 2012. When Chávez died in 2013, Maduro became the country’s president and remained in that role until his kidnapping by U.S. military forces in early January 2026.
Maduro inherited Chávez’s firm control over his country’s military leadership, Supreme Court, and state media, but also came into power amid a collapsing economy and progressive opposition that Maduro oppressed by having security forces torture and kill dissenters, jailing and exiling opposition leaders, and persecuting local activists who challenged the legitimacy of his 2013, 2018, and 2024 election victories (which were marred by a lack of transparency, historically low voter turnout, and 45 other countries refusing to recognize Maduro as his country’s legitimately elected leader).
Under his leadership, Venezuela’s economy began to collapse due to a global decline in oil prices; massive social spending, high-level economic mismanagement and corruption, as well as U.S. sanctions, political experts observed, resulting in hyperinflation, productive collapse, and severe shortages of essential goods. Meanwhile, numerous groups — like the International Criminal Court, the Organization of American States, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and other organizations — have all criticized Maduro’s crimes against humanity committed against his own citizens.
In 2017, the U.S. government labelled Maduro a dictator. In October 2020, a U.S. federal court indicted Maduro for narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. By November 2025, the current U.S. presidential administration labelled Maduro and his political allies as a foreign terrorist group until his kidnapping by U.S. military forces on January 3.
Why Maduro’s human rights climate matters for LGBTQ+ people
In addition to the harsh crackdown against government reform protestors and Maduro’s political opponents, under Maduro’s leadership, the Venezuelan Parliament passed legislation allowing the government to control, monitor, and ultimately close down non-governmental human rights organizations, Amnesty International reported. This oppression of government critics included the shutdown of media outlets, arrests under fabricated terrorism charges, indefinite detentions in inhumane conditions, and denial of access to legal representation.
These actions and the government’s refusal to collect information about social challenges faced by LGBTQ+ Venezuelans have made it much harder to raise public awareness or political support for the nation’s beleaguered queer population. Now, not only is it risky for Venezuelans LGBTQ+ activists and organizations to operate, but the country’s lack of LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections (including a lack of marriage rights, no legal recognition of transgender identities, and conservative anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment nationwide).
As a result, many LGBTQ+ Venezuelans, particularly trans individuals, emigrate to nearby Chile and Peru for refuge, community, and safety.
Public rhetoric and political signaling around LGBTQ+ people
In 2013, Maduro implied that his political rival, Henrique Capriles, is gay. Under Maduro’s leadership, Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab called transgender people “human aberrations.” Concurrently, Diosdado Cabello, the head of Venezuela’s United Socialist Party, launched systematic attacks against LGBTQ+ civil rights activists, The Washington Blade reported.
In 2017, authorities in Caracas closed a municipal office serving sex‑ and gender‑diverse people and briefly detained local LGBTQ+ activists. Between January 2021 and December 2022, the nonprofit Observatorio de Derechos LGBTIQ+ documented 11 arbitrary detentions of queer people by police and state security forces, as well as four police raids on LGBTQ+ spaces. Four of the detention cases involved acts of extortion, torture, and violence.
In 2023, the mass arrest of 33 men at the Avalon Club, a gay bar and sauna in Valencia, led Tamara Adrian, the country’s first transgender legislator, to say that the raids sent “a very powerful message” to police and judges “that LGBT people can be persecuted for being LGBT.” The Venezuelan Observatory of LGBTIQ+ Violence and allied groups agreed with Adrian’s assessment.
Following Maduro’s 2024 reelection, legislators from Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) consulted anti-LGBTQ+ religious groups on family policies. After his re-election, government officials also cancelled over 23,000 Venezuelan passports from Caraqueño activists, which complicated the legal status of LGBTQ+ community members seeking asylum abroad.
What changed legally under Maduro, and what didn’t
Maduro has promised progress on LGBTQ+ issues but hasn’t delivered. Venezuela doesn’t offer legal recognition of same-sex marriage, transgender people’s gender identities, nor does the country offer consistent access to HIV- and transgender-related medical care.
Though the country has laws forbidding anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in housing and banking, LGBTQ+ activists say that workplace discrimination and harassment from legal authorities persist, especially without any enforcement mechanisms to enforce anti-discrimination laws.
In 2015, Maduro created a “Presidential Council of Sexual Diversity” and said LGBTQ+ activists could “count on” him, adding, “We are breaking down barriers … [and are] united in this struggle: women, afro-descendants, workers and homosexuals.” In October 2020, Maduro publicly asked the National Assembly to take up the issue of same‑sex marriage.
However, Maduro’s pro-LGBTQ+ posturing has been undermined by a lack of legislative and judicial progress on ensuring basic LGBTQ+ rights, as well as other anti-LGBTQ+ actions and flirtations with Evangelical conservatives (who make up an estimated 17% of the country’s voting population).
In 2003, Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled that the government may introduce measures providing economic benefits to same-sex couples. The court, however, stopped short of saying that the government was required to do so under the law. In 2008, the court said that the country’s constitution neither prohibits nor requires government recognition of same-sex marriages.
Since May 2004, Tamara Adrian, Venezuela’s first out trans deputy, has fought in court for new government-issued identification cards and passports for trans people, but the court has never issued a ruling on the matter.
In January 2015, same-sex marriage advocates filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Tribunal of Justice challenging Article 44 of the country’s Civil Code, which states that marriage is only legally valid between a man and a woman. But even though the court announced on April 28, 2016, that it would hear oral arguments in the case, it has taken no further action on the case since, not even issuing an official ruling.
In December 2016, Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled that children born to same-sex couples could be registered with the surnames of both parents, regardless of biological relation. The tribunal based its ruling on Article 75 of the Venezuelan Constitution, which mandates state protection for all families without discrimination.
In May 2016, Venezuela’s National Assembly unanimously approved a resolution establishing May 17 as the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, oppression, and harassment. However, in 2016, the country’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice suspended the resolution.
Nevertheless, in March 2023, Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice overturned Section 565 of the Military Justice Code, which banned “sexual acts against nature” and criminalized consensual same-sex relations between military members.
Queer Venezuelans in crisis: health care, policing, and economic precarity
Oil-rich Venezuela once ranked as one of the wealthiest economies in the world, but it experienced an economic collapse that resulted in widespread poverty. This downfall coincided with government crackdowns on LGBTQ+ and other human rights activists and resulted in a lack of essential goods and healthcare services for most citizens.
A 2015 report from the LGBTI Network of Venezuela said that, because the country’s anti-discrimination laws lack any enforcement mechanisms, such discrimination rarely gets punished. Though same-sex sexual relations are legal, same-sex couples in Venezuela are still persecuted under vague “decency” and “lewd conduct” ordinances.
As a result, queer Venezuelans “constantly live situations of discrimination, threats, and attacks against their moral, psychological, or physical integrity, and still lack legal protection, which makes them defenseless citizens in an atmosphere of alarming growth of homophobia and transphobia.”
After Maduro: who holds power now and what LGBTQ+ people should watch
After Maduro’s arrest by U.S. military forces in January, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as the country’s interim president. While Rodriguez was installed to serve for 90 days, the country’s National Assembly can extend her term by another 90 days.
Interestingly, Article 233 of the Venezuelan constitution requires elections to be held within 30 days if there is an “absolute absence” of the president. As such, it’s unclear when the country might hold another presidential election. If Rodriguez remains in power, political observers expect her to continue Maduro’s policies, aligning with anti-progressive conservatives and military forces.
The current U.S. President has said that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado lacks the “respect” and “support” to lead her country. With the U.S. now exploiting the country for its oil and interim-President Rodriguez likely consolidating her power in Maduro’s absence, the country’s dire anti-LGBTQ+ politics seem unlikely to change anytime in the near future.
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