Chavismo Resists Trump And Radicalizes Its “Revolutionary State” Project

Key Points

• U.S. tanker interceptions have been followed by tougher laws, sharper censorship, and fresh arrests.
• Maduro is accelerating the Estado Comunal, expanding communes and routing local funds through them to harden control.
• The plan blends security and labor mobilization, while selective prisoner releases buy time and reduce scrutiny.

Trump’s latest squeeze has jolted Venezuela’s leadership into acceleration mode. The White House called its tanker operation a “quarantine.” Caracas calls it piracy. Then it tightened the screws at home.

The National Assembly rushed a bill that can impose prison terms of up to 20 years for endorsing tanker seizures or other foreign “coercive measures.”

It stacks onto the late-2024 “Simón Bolívar” law, also widely reported to allow sentences of 25 to 30 years for conduct framed as supporting sanctions.

The central push is institutional. Maduro says Venezuela has about 5,300 communes in consolidation.

His goal is the Estado Comunal, a parallel system that routes authority and money through “popular power” bodies aligned with the executive.

Chavismo Resists Trump And Radicalizes Its “Revolutionary State” Project

In the Consulta Popular Nacional, communities submit local projects and vote on which receive funding. Ahead of the fourth consultation, officials stated that 36,674 projects from 5,336 communal circuits would be submitted to consultation.

Security is being wired into that grid. Communes are paired with Unidades Comunales de Defensa Integral.

The PSUV has talked about moving to an “armed phase” if attacked, invoking a Maoist “prolonged people’s war.”

Maduro has pressed for faster readiness and has spoken of distributing weapons. Control is also moving into workplaces and the constitution.

Maduro announced a “constituyente sindical” to reorganize labor structures, and he has called a January plenary to feed proposals into a constitutional reform that could enshrine communes, reshape election rules, weaken regional autonomy, and widen the military’s political role.

On December 25, the government announced the release of 99 detainees held after the disputed July 2024 unrest.

Rights groups say hundreds remain jailed, and arrests of opposition and labor figures continue.

VenApp is being promoted for citizen reporting, and TikTok was fined and told to set up locally to keep operating.