Caracas (EFE).- The Venezuelan Parliament established a commission to reform the anti-hate law, which has been criticized for being used to persecute opponents. Several NGOs are calling for its repeal.
In a statement to the media, Parliament’s First Vice President Pedro Infante announced the creation of the «special commission,» composed of 11 deputies, and formed after Acting President Delcy Rodríguez requested last week that her brother, the President of the Legislature, Jorge Rodríguez, carry out a partial reform of the law.
Infante explained that the commission has established a work agenda to draft the bill to reform the law, which will then be submitted to the Supreme Court of Justice for validation. Once this step is completed, Infante continued, the bill will be brought before Parliament for debate and approval.
Infante indicated that the commission’s work will focus on decriminalizing the law and on «certain necessary definitions» to ensure its «proper application.»
«What have we defined? A path that will, of course, involve dialogue, debate, and review with various sectors of Venezuelan society. We will certainly encounter victims and those affected by hate and violence, as well as those affected by the improper implementation of the law,” he noted.
From 2024 to 2025, a total of 118 minors in Venezuela were charged with crimes under the hate speech law. This period was marked by a crisis that erupted after the opposition alleged electoral fraud following Nicolás Maduro’s reelection in the 2024 presidential election.
Since the law’s passage in 2017, at least 927 people in Venezuela have been charged with “incitement to hatred,” according to data released last Wednesday by the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The «Constitutional Law Against Hate, for Peaceful Coexistence and Tolerance» was passed in Nov. 2017 by the National Constituent Assembly led by former president Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026). The assembly was established in parallel with the opposition-majority Parliament that year, after months of political crisis and massive anti-government protests in Venezuela.
Then-President Maduro explicitly requested the legislation to put an end to the alleged “hate” messages that sparked the wave of protests that rocked the country between April and August of that year, according to the ruling party.
The legislation establishes penalties of up to 20 years in prison for so-called «hate crimes» and has since been criticized by human rights defenders and NGOs such as Espacio Público.
In 2023, Espacio Público denounced that the law has been used as a tool «to persecute people for expressions that are uncomfortable or critical of certain sectors of power.» EFE
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