Venezuela Working Group
Venezuela Working Group
The Venezuela Working Group (VWG) leverages AS/COA’s corporate constituency to provide a unique forum for a constructive, hands-on conversation on Venezuela. The VWG navigates Venezuela’s changing economic and political landscape by convening key national and international stakeholders from the public, private, and social sectors to better understand the country’s present challenges and future political and economic scenarios. Our programs include high-level private and public meetings and discussions.
The VWG is open to and currently includes AS/COA corporate, Chairman’s International Advisory Council, Board of Directors, and President’s Circle members.
Leading Venezuelan civil society organizations will present their report The SDGs in Venezuela: Report from an Endangered Country on July 18 at AS/COA in New York.
Council of the Americas will hold a private, off-the-record meeting with James Story, chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela.
Join AWG for a discussion on fighting corruption in a new Venezuela and the launch of the Capacity to Combat Corruption (CCC) Index.
Join us and the Venezuelan American Association of the United States for an evening in support of the Cuatro por Venezuela Foundation's efforts addressing the country's humanitarian crisis.
Join YPA for a timely discussion on how Cuban baseball and Venezuelan soccer can transcend politics to foster transnational links with the United States and beyond.
Henri Falcón’s candidacy in May’s election could be aimed more at opposition politics than defeating Nicolás Maduro.
Venezuela is holding presidential elections, but they’ll be far from free and fair.
Video: Social Media As a Tool of Democracy in Venezuela
Video: Social Media As a Tool of Democracy in Venezuela
Watch a discussion between experts from Twitter, Sin Mordaza, and Human Rights Watch on the power of platforms such as Twitter to document human rights violations in the country.
Speakers:
- Colin Crowell, Vice President, Global Public Policy & Corporate Philanthropy, Twitter
- Rodrigo Diamanti, Director, Un Mundo Sin Mordaza
- Daniel Wilkinson, Managing Director for the Americas, Human Rights Watch
- Raúl Stolk, Lawyer and Writer; Chairman, Caracas Chronicles (moderator)
Fake news is a problem, but the truth can spread just as quickly, Twitter's Colin Crowell said in a panel that started with a discussion on the importance of citizen journalists in Venezuela. Human Rights Watch's Daniel Wilkinson explained how Venezuelan citizens' active use of social media and videos is crucial to document human rights violations today. For Rodrigo Diamanti of Un Mundo sin Mordaza, the International Criminal Court's decision in February to open a preliminary investigation into human rights abuses by the Maduro government is "the best thing that has happened to Venezuela in the last five years." Diamanti also said that one of his greatest concerns is that the Maduro regime is moving toward cutting off the internet entirely in the country in the interest of self-preservation, and he urged the international community to move proactively to safeguard the internet before that could happen.
Venezuela's January-to-December loss in 2017 ranks as the fifth-largest single-year production drop experienced by one country since 2000.
In this podcast, Mark Feierstein, NSC senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs in the Obama White House, lays out a multi-pronged strategy for pressuring the Maduro regime ahead of 2018 elections.
