The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) Oscar Figuera argues that a political option different from those led by Nicolás Maduro, on the one hand, and María Corina Machado, on the other, must be built to give the country possibilities for development with respect for its sovereignty.
As a member of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), he says that respect for human, political, and social rights should not be sacrificed in the name of defending national sovereignty.
“The fight against imperialism cannot lead us to lose sight of the role played by governments such as that of Nicolás Maduro, which, with fraudulent policies, talk about socialism, talk about revolution, talk about Bolivarianism, while trampling on and massacring the rights of the people,” Figuera states.
At the legendary headquarters of the PCV, on the corner of Cantaclaro in the San Juan parish of Caracas, we spoke with Oscar Figuera about the political situation in 2025.
-2025 has been a year marked by uncertainty and instability. What is your assessment as a deputy? What stands out most in political terms for the country?
-As a deputy, I would have to say that the National Assembly is really a place where the very right to be a deputy, which is an act of popular will, is not respected. It is a place where any dissenting opinion is not respected. It has reached the point where an opposition congressman, whom we call a collaborator, made a reference to women’s rights during the approval of an agreement on Iran, and it was demanded that his speech be removed from the minutes and not kept. That is a right of a congressman, and things have reached such extremes.
“In my case, I have no right to speak. So, what I do is go to the assembly to abstain from voting on items that we generally don’t know about, we don’t know what the content of the laws is. I do this so that there is a record that there is no unanimity. When something is voted on unanimously there, it is because generally, for some reason, I am not there,” said Figuera.
He maintains that “the National Assembly is a space for control, for legitimizing policy, for violating rights, for approving laws exclusively in line with what the government wants to present as progress in democracy, which in practice are restrictions on democratic freedoms.”
“They recently approved regulations that lead to social control of the population, taking into account the reality of foreign threats, but instead of pushing for internal democratization, what this is allowing them to do is build instruments of greater internal control,” Figuera said.
The external threat
He adds that «the credible and tangible external threat ends up being used by the government of Nicolás Maduro, and by all the institutions of the Venezuelan state that are under his control, as a justification for deepening repression, for deepening the authoritarian nature of the government, for continuing to violate human rights, social rights, for continuing to destroy wages, social benefits, workers’ rights, in short, to continue violating the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.»
“We could say that one of the characteristics of this year is the continuous violation and deepening of the violation of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the deepening of the authoritarian nature of the illegitimate and illegal government of Nicolás Maduro Moros,” he states.
-Why do you say it is illegal?
-Illegal because there was a [presidential election] process here on July 28, 2024, where there are no results that we can know. The National Electoral Council (CNE) did not finish fulfilling its functions. Its role was replaced by other instruments of the State that had no reason to validate non-existent results and, therefore, Nicolás Maduro is a de facto president who was sworn in on January 10 [2025] without the results of the National Electoral Council. That makes it illegal.
-Why do you say it is illegitimate?
-It is illegitimate because the massive rejection by Venezuelan society, by the Venezuelan population, continues to grow, even in a context as complicated as the one we are experiencing, where there should be patriotic unity in the face of the threat of aggression.
“Even in this scenario, there is no process of national unity, as they call it, or patriotic unity, as we call it, around the government of Nicolás Maduro, or around him, in the face of threats of internal aggression. So it is illegal and illegitimate,” Figuera reaffirms.
-If what you say is true… Why does the government remain in power under these conditions? What has the opposition, the popular movement, failed to do to bring about change in the country? What is preventing these things from happening?
-We are talking about democratic change. It is a change based on the Constitution, it must be a change that we hope will be peaceful. There is always violence in political confrontations over power, but we hope it will be peaceful so that our people, in addition to the suffering they are already experiencing, do not reach a point of total chaos and widespread violence.
“We could say that we are committed to a democratic, peaceful, popular solution, where the people play a leading role and where the Constitution is the mandatory reference point for this process,” he states.
Strength and division
-What has been missing?
-We must recognize that the government has pursued a policy of dividing the social movement, the popular movement, and left-wing actors. A repressive policy, a policy of persecution, a policy of terror, a policy of threats. Last year, we made progress in our efforts to build the Popular Democratic Front, and all our actions—which were within the framework of the Constitution and the law—were met with a hostile response.
-How is that statement reflected?
-[Former presidential candidate] Enrique Márquez was imprisoned, kidnapped, without even knowing what he is accused of today. Without the right to a defense. For example. There is also the case of [leftist lawyer] María Alejandra Díaz, who had to seek asylum in an embassy and leave the country. [Former Caracas Mayor] Juan Barreto was kidnapped in his home and not allowed to leave. I was vilified, constantly accused of being a CIA agent in the state media.
He points out that the trade union movement has also “been attacked,” which complicates citizen action.
«Trade unionists and other groups organized an event for last Thursday (December 4, 2025), a national meeting where a proclamation was to be presented, but what they did was, a week before, they imprisoned leaders of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV) who were part of that effort. They imprisoned the president of the Construction Federation. They kidnapped them, because more than prisoners, they are really kidnapped; we have to use the real word,» said the deputy before the National Assembly.
He indicates that this policy ends up inhibiting the actions of activists: “This causes terror in many sectors.”
«There are those who maintain the line of action, but there are others who are beginning to reflect on their safety at this time. The government has used persecution, terrorism, and repression to strike at the processes of accumulation of forces, unity, and coordination that different currents of the labor movement, the political movement, and the workers’ movement have attempted over the last two years,» says Oscar Figuera.
Apart from the actions of those in power, he points out that “differences in how to analyze and deal with reality have led to a huge split among all the groups that oppose the policies and actions of the government led by Nicolás Maduro.”
“It is the very division of the democratic currents, combined with the government’s policy of terror and persecution, that has prevented the consolidation of an effort to come together and build a different option to the two poles of national disaster,” reflects the member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Venezuela.
Where are the poles?
-Who represents these two poles?
-For us, the two poles are the one led by Nicolás Maduro and the other led by María Corina Machado, who is calling for military intervention in the country. Neither of these are solutions that serve the Venezuelan people. We must build an option that does serve them. It must be democratic, popular, constitutional, and electoral.
-How do you build that option?
-New presidential elections must be called, because if the CNE did not give the results, if that process was not concluded, and if today it is no longer credible, new elections must be called.
-Can that process go beyond the left? Does it go beyond the Marxist-Leninist vision of the PCV?
-What we have said is that we must work for the broadest unity beyond the left.
-What are the limits?
-The points that define this process of unity are to distance ourselves from the two poles responsible for the national disaster. Neither with Nicolás Maduro and those who identify with and defend the plan of national destruction that he leads. Nor with María Corina Machado, much less, who calls for an invasion of this country. We are going to talk to anyone who does not align themselves with these two extremes of national disaster and is willing to converge on a democratic, popular, constitutional, electoral solution.
-What responsibility does the Communist Party of Venezuela bear for Venezuela being in this situation? You supported [Hugo] Chávez and you supported Nicolás Maduro.
-We all bear responsibility. Some bear more and some bear less.
-But what responsibility does the PCV bear in this? Was it a mistake to support Nicolás Maduro?
-Given how things have turned out: of course! History tells us it was a mistake. At that time, we believed that, even as a political leader of the left who came out of the Socialist League, there was a possibility of building a much more inclusive process. He met with us and said, “I am not Chávez, I invite you all.” That was his initial speech, but then he became more authoritarian than anyone else, and that is what his government has become.
«For his second election here at the Cantaclaro Theater, we told him that we would support him if he made a commitment to us. That’s when the 20-point agreement was approved to address the national crisis, in which they committed to a series of things. Nicolás Maduro was here, and that’s what convinced the party to support him. We supported him on the basis of that program, and then it was impossible to make any progress,» Figuera explains.
He indicated that for the 2020 National Assembly elections, “a break and a separation from the government” had already been proposed.
“It became clear that his actions were aimed at destroying wages, destroying the right to unionize, destroying the right to collective bargaining, repression, persecution, authoritarianism, despotism, and commitment to big capital that expresses the interests of transnational capital and capital built on corruption,” Figuera said.
He adds that in this “Maduro and María Corina, who also expresses the interests of businessmen, but from other sectors of capital, agree. For these class reasons, we do not support either of the two sectors.”
-What are the Communist Party’s short-term actions to try to move toward the change you propose?
-We agree with other sectors on the need to build a political proposal for the country, a political proposal that is neither the continuation of Nicolás Maduro in power nor foreign intervention. So, that requires a broad range of sectors to agree. That implies the need to present a political proposal. A political proposal where one of its focal points is the electoral issue.
-In the face of external threats, what is your party’s position?
-Total rejection of any type of foreign intervention in our country. The problem of the external threat of US imperialism is not only against Venezuela because it comes to apply a new Monroe Doctrine, as they themselves have pointed out.
“It is necessary to push for a process of rejection of the US military presence in the Caribbean or that of any other power. We must condemn all types of action, all intervention in Venezuela or in other countries,” Figuera states.
He emphasizes that “the struggle against imperialism cannot lead us to lose sight of the role played by governments such as that of Nicolás Maduro, which, with fraudulent policies, talk about socialism, talk about revolution, talk about Bolivarianism, while trampling on and massacring the rights of the people and willing to hand them over to the United States itself if they are allowed to remain in power.”
“They are not guarantors of sovereignty. Change must be democratic, popular, constitutional, electoral, and also a sovereign proposal,” the National Assembly deputy closed.
Originally published in contrapunto.com by José Gregorio Yépez
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