Venezuela

Like many Latin American countries, Venezuela faces significant challenges in combating poverty despite its natural wealth. For more than a decade, The Carter Center has worked to help build a better future for millions of Venezuelans. Since 1996, The Carter Center has promoted good health by helping to eliminate a debilitating disease called river blindness, and since 1998, the Center has assisted Venezuelans in developing sound democratic practices. Efforts to wage peace and fight disease continue today.

Waging Peace

Since Venezuela President Hugo Chávez's election in 1998 and re-elections in 2000 and 2006, his administration has been criticized by opposition groups for what they see as its increasingly undemocratic actions. Opposition groups organized general strikes and large street protests, some of which ended in violence, to call for Chávez's resignation and early elections. From 2002 to 2004, The Carter Center and the Organization of American States worked with both sides and electoral authorities to resolve the political crisis, culminating in the first known vote on the question of recalling a president that was held in August 2004. In 2005, the Center commissioned an analysis of Venezuela electoral laws from four international experts, in response to a request from the presidents of the National Electoral Council and the National Assembly.

Read full text on the Carter Center's peace work in Venezuela >

Fighting Disease

Together with its partners, The Carter Center and the Venezuela Ministry of Health are intensifying efforts to reach the isolated and nomadic Yanomami communities in the Amazon rain forest.

Read full text on the Carter Center's health work in Venezuela >