In this report from Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) and VE Sin Filtro, I contributed with the section on govermenment-linked application/platform ecosystem.

From the report

This report provides a detailed analysis of the surveillance technologies used in Venezuela for social and political control under Nicolás Maduro’s regime and continuing under Acting President Delcy Rodríguez following Maduro’s removal by US forces on January 3, 2026. Despite the change in leadership, Venezuela’s extensive surveillance infrastructure—including video monitoring systems, telecommunications interception, cyberpatrolling, state-sponsored digital applications, device searches and seizures, drone surveillance, and cyberattacks—remains fully operational. This report documents how this surveillance apparatus, which costs over $1 billion, enables comprehensive authoritarian control mechanisms that facilitate systematic political repression over a population of around twenty-seven million individuals.

Report page: https://dfrlab.org/2026/03/26/watch-the-watchers-report/