‘Concrete Results That Benefit Communities’: Venezuelans Pick State-Funded Projects
Caracas, April 28, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela held its second National Popular Consultation of 2025 as organized communities selected local initiatives that will receive state support.
On Sunday, April 27, elections took place in 5,338 communal circuits with voters choosing from up to seven projects previously approved in grassroots assemblies. The winning proposal will receive the equivalent of US $10,000, with communal organizations charged with executing the projects and rendering accounts.
Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE) organized the vote in 5,718 voting centers. Polling stations were open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and in some cases the voting period was extended due to long queues. All citizens aged 15 and older were eligible to participate.
Early reports showed that communities prioritized local infrastructure and basic services projects. In El Panal Commune, located in Western Caracas, voters chose to repair public walkways and sidewalks. In Lara state, members of the Vencedores de Carorita Commune selected a project to improve the water supply infrastructure.
“This electoral event is a step for the consolidation of the communal model through public policies,” Leonelis Díaz, an activist and Communes Ministry official from Cojedes state, told Venezuelanalysis. “In our state, the people picked 99 projects, with special focus on social, services and economic areas.”
Minister of Communes Ángel Prado hailed the enthusiasm behind the consultation and the direct participation in governance.
“This method of governance is the path that our people have chosen, and we are seeing the concrete results that benefit communities,” Prado told reporters. “Popular power is the engine of our democracy.”
According to official figures, Venezuela currently has over 3,600 registered communes. Former President Hugo Chávez proposed communes as “building blocks” for the construction of socialism, conceived as grassroots, assembly-driven, self-government organizations that would later aggregate into higher instances.
The Ministry of Communes defined communal circuits centered on communes in order to span the entire Venezuelan territory. The circuits also allow communities to participate in territories without established communes.
Sunday’s election was the fourth National Popular Consultation since the first one in April 2024. The Nicolás Maduro government has pledged to hold them four times per year.
Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja in Mexico City, Mexico.
