Country Report on Terrorism 2024 - Chapter 1 - Venezuela

Country Overview:  Criminals and nonstate armed groups continued to operate freely in Venezuela, including TdA and CdlS, which the U.S. Government designated as FTOs in 2025.  TdA originated in Venezuela and conducted kidnappings, extortion, authorized its members to attack and kill U.S. law enforcement, and assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure.  The Maduro regime employed inconsistent public narratives by claiming that TdA did not exist, that Venezuelan authorities had defeated TdA in Venezuela, and that various members of the democratic opposition were linked to TdA.

Maduro and his representatives used terrorism charges to imprison more than 2,000 Venezuelans, including opposition leaders and protesters, around the July 28 election.  Maduro representatives also publicly announced the names of eight U.S.  nationals detained on terrorism charges.  In 2024, the FATF added Venezuela to its gray list due to significant deficiencies in its AML/CFT regime.  Venezuela made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and Caribbean FATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime.

Throughout 2024, Venezuela failed to cooperate with Colombia on combating terrorism and transnational crime, noting Venezuela allowed the ELN and other nonstate armed groups to transit freely between the Norte de Santander and Arauca Departments in Colombia and Zulia and Táchira states in Venezuela.

2024 Terrorism Trends:  There were no reported international terrorist incidents in Venezuela, although there are reports of Colombian FTOs expanding operations into Venezuela.

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