Takeaways from AP report on fear of repression in post-election Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The last time anyone heard from Edni López was Sunday. The 33-year-old political science professor was preparing to board a flight to Argentina to visit a friend when she texted from the airport just before 10 a.m. that something was wrong with her passport.

What happened next remains a mystery — one contributing to the climate of fear and repression that has engulfed Venezuela following its disputed presidential election, the most serious wave of human rights abuses since Latin America’s military dictatorships in the 1970s.

When López's mother, Ninoska Barrios, and her friends learned she didn’t board the flight, they started frantically combing detention centers. Finally, on Tuesday — more than 48 hours later — they learned she was being held, incommunicado, by Venezuela’s feared military intelligence police on unknown criminal charges, unable to see an attorney or speak with her family.

“Please, give back my daughter,” a sobbing Barrios pleaded Tuesday outside Venezuela’s top human rights office in a video that went viral on social media. “It’s not right that a Venezuelan mother has to go through all this.”

Here are some of the takeaways from the AP’s exclusive report on López's arrest and President Nicolás Maduro’s efforts to crush dissent.

López's arrest isn’t unique. Since the July 28 presidential election, security forces have rounded up more than 2,000 people for demonstrating against Maduro or casting doubt on his claims that he won a third term despite strong evidence he lost the vote by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

The spree of detentions — urged on by Maduro himself — is unprecedented and puts Venezuela on pace to easily exceed those jailed during three previous crackdowns against Maduro’s opponents.

Those arrested include journalists, political leaders, campaign staffers and an attorney defending protesters. Others have had their Venezuelan passports annulled. One local activist even livestreamed her own arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home.

The repression, much of it seemingly random and arbitrary, is having a chilling effect, said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the International Crisis Group.

“It’s not just discouraging protests. People are scared to go on the streets period,” he said. “There’s a sense that police have a quota to fill and anyone can be stopped and carted away as a suspected subversive.”

The threats start at the top. Maduro has called on Venezuelans to denounce election doubters via a government-run app originally created to report power outages. He also said the government was refurbishing two gang-dominated prisons to accommodate an expected surge in jailing of opponents.

“There will be no mercy,” Maduro said on state TV.

But complicating efforts to crush dissent is the changing face of the government’s opponents.

While demonstrations have been far smaller and tamer than past bouts of unrest, they’re now more spontaneous, often leaderless and made up of youth — some barely teenagers — from Caracas’ hillside slums who have traditionally been a rock solid base of support for the government.

The swiftness of the government’s clampdown is staggering. In just 10 days, security forces have rounded up nearly the same number of people as they did over five months in 2017, according to Provea, a local human rights watchdog.

“Operation Knock-Knock is a prime tool of state terrorism,” said Oscar Murillo, the head of Provea, referring to the middle-of-the-night detentions touted as a scare tactic by officials.

In the low-income Caracas neighborhood of Catia, once a ruling party stronghold, residents are even deleting videos of the demonstrations from their smartphones for fear the government is tracking social media posts to identify critics.

The sudden silence is a sharp break from the hopeful mood preceding the election when emboldened opposition supporters confronted security forces at anti-Maduro rallies. They served food, lent their vehicles and opened their businesses to opposition leaders knowing they would suffer retaliation from the police or see their businesses shut down.

Even before the current wave of unrest, Venezuela’s human rights record was under intense scrutiny. Maduro is himself the target of an investigation by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the past.

Maduro’s tactics have been likened to those used in Central and South America in the 1970s by military dictatorships that forcibly disappeared opponents and sometimes innocent bystanders. Many were killed, and in Argentina, some even drugged and dropped from airplanes into the ocean, with no trace of ever having been detained.

Maduro’s alleged abuses have little in common with those “Dirty War” campaigns carried out by state security forces.

But the goal of instilling fear is the same, said Santiago Canton, an Argentine lawyer and secretary general of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, a watchdog group.

“What happened 50 years ago is unlikely to occur again,” said Canton. “But social media is a multiplier factor that didn’t exist before so you can be more selective with the use of force and achieve the same results.”

Goodman reported from Miami.

Bolivarian National Police stand guard in front of a mural with an image of independence hero Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Police are deployed to demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A man carries a protester affected by tear gas thrown by police during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote, in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Protesters face off with police during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A protester scuffles with police during demonstrations against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A protester kicks a tear gas canister fired by police during demonstration against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

In this undated family photo, Venezuelan Edni Lopez, a political science professor and award-winning poet, flashes a vee sign at her home in Caracas, Venezuela. (Courtesy of family via AP)

Police fire tear gas at protesters demonstrating against the official election results declaring President Nicolas Maduro's reelection, the day after the vote in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 3, 2025--

Saoradh Enterprise Partners (SEP), a Colorado-based venture capital (VC) and research firm, has released the 2024 US Cleantech Innovation Hubs Survey, the second edition of its comprehensive ranking and analysis of cleantech ecosystems across the US. SEP defines innovation hubs as ecosystems driven by research funding, technology development, and venture formation. The report evaluates the 100 leading cleantech hubs in the nation, identifying their strengths, weaknesses, and potential for impact.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250403938883/en/

In 2025, the urgency for global climate action remains at the forefront, including in the US at the state and metropolitan levels. Investments in cleantech have surged, outpacing fossil fuel investments for the first time. According to PitchBook Data, Inc., global clean energy markets are projected to reach $1.3 trillion in 2025 and $2 trillion in 2030, marking a significant shift toward sustainable energy solutions. VC investments into companies innovating clean energy technologies support this shift, which equaled $17.9 billion in 2024 and $89.4 billion since 2020.

Despite this momentum, many promising cleantech hubs remain overlooked. SEP’s Survey highlighted a cleantech commercialization gap — the disconnect between regions receiving VC funds and those leading in research and development (R&D). While California, Massachusetts, and New York secured 45% of VC cleantech funding, they accounted for only 25% of university R&D cleantech spending. This discrepancy suggests that the nation’s cleantech research remains under-commercialized, slowing decarbonization efforts.

One major challenge contributing to this gap has been the lack of comprehensive datasets on cleantech innovation hubs to inform investors, policy makers, and other stakeholders. This scarcity results in investment decisions that lack an understanding of regional cleantech ecosystems and a rigorous, data-driven analysis necessary to assess technology availability, viability, and market deployment.

“At SEP, we aim to close this commercialization gap by using the Survey as a compass to find great technology and build the companies that commercialize it – and to share its findings with other investors, corporations, economic development agencies, and policymakers to drive optimal cleantech development in the US,” said Paul Nelson, Managing Partner of SEP.

The SEP Survey includes a robust index scoring system with 13 datasets grouped into three stages (research, technology, and venture) to rank cleantech hubs at the granular level of metropolitan statistical areas. The 35-page Survey Whitepaper report and accompanying online Hubs Data System provide access to underlying details. Examples of the Whitepaper’s content include:

Top 10 2024 Cleantech Innovation Hubs

Leaders across the US reviewed the Survey, provided their take on its benefits to cleantech development, and are using it to help solve critical issues such as global warming, including the American Energy Society, Colorado Cleantech, Pitchbook, Governor of Colorado, Research Triangle, Stanford University, Center for Houston’s Future, Energy Capital Ventures, and more.

“It comes as no surprise that the Bay Area continues to rank 1st for innovating and commercializing cleantech, as identified by SEP in the 2024 Cleantech Innovation Hubs Survey. Leveraging the existing ecosystem of large companies, startups, academia, non-profits, and government organizations that exist within these Innovation Hubs is critical to building resilient cleantech ecosystems and to decarbonizing industry.”—Naomi Bones, Managing Director of Stanford University Natural Gas Initiative and Co-Managing Director, Stanford Hydrogen Initiative (Bay Area hub #1)

“Colorado has always been a leader in clean energy technology, and we are proud to be among one of the top in the country. Our cleantech industry creates good-paying jobs that power our economy, while developing innovations that protect our air quality and our state for future generations. While top ten is a good place to be, we won’t rest until we’re #1.” —Colorado Governor Jared Polis (Colorado Cleanrange hub #5)

All quotes can be viewed on SEP’s website. Access to the executive summary, Whitepaper, and online data system here.

About SEP

Saoradh Enterprise Partners (SEP) is an early stage cleantech venture capital and transactional research firm. The firm embodies a new approach to drive commercialization of impactful technologies across all sectors that comprise the cleantech ecosystem.

SEP leverages its innovative market and technology research platform to identify the best cleantech and invest in early stage companies to commercialize opportunities in US innovation hubs The firm partners with innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporations in a balanced approach at the magical intersection of science (what’s possible), finance (what’s bankable), industry (what’s needed), and planet (what matters).

To learn more, visit www.saoradh.com.

Map highlighting the newly announced 2024 Cleantech Innovation Hubs across the United States.