Defending Peace, Building Socialism

Click here to download the report from the Progressive International Peace Brigade. →

The Brigade observed the country's sixth National Popular Consultation on 8 March — a direct-democracy exercise in which over 36,000 development projects proposed by communal councils were put to a popular vote across 10,000 precincts.

The delegation visited five communes spanning Caracas, the Andean lowlands, and the shores of Lake Maracaibo, documenting how communities have built local food production, textile manufacturing, cocoa processing, and other forms of economic self-sufficiency in response to over 1,088 US unilateral coercive measures that have devastated the Venezuelan economy.

The brigade also visited the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research, a civilian institution struck by US missiles during the 3 January assault, and attended solidarity rallies for Iran, Palestine, and Cuba.

Across every commune, the brigade encountered a combative popular movement determined to defend the communal process — widely seen as the revolution's bedrock of resilience.

This report sets out what the Peace Brigade learned during its time in Venezuela. You can click here to download the full report, which sets out what the Brigade learned in its time in the country. The report includes detailed accounts of:

• The Bolivarian Revolution — The ideological and historical foundations of Chavismo, from Bolívar's anti-imperial vision to the 1998 electoral victory and the sweeping social transformations that followed.
• The Communal Movement — How Venezuela built a nationwide network of self-governing communes that became the revolution's backbone.
• The Communes Up Close — On-the-ground portraits of three communes: a revolutionary Caracas barrio, an Andean coffee cooperative that invented its own currency, and an Afro-descendant fishing community on Lake Maracaibo.
• Revolution Under Attack — The full scale of Washington's economic war against Venezuela, the dramatic US military assault of 3 January 2026, and how the movement is responding.