In politics, societies do not always change their minds: sometimes they change their conversation. That is exactly what happened in Venezuela. For a quarter of a century, Chavismo-Madurismo managed to impose a narrative framework in which polarization was a method, resignation was culture, and fear was public policy. But in November 2025, that country stopped speaking softly. And what he says now leaves no room for nuance: nine out of ten Venezuelans reject the regime, its leaders and the world they built.
The latest national survey confirms this with almost brutal clarity. In a democracy, 90% never think alike about anything. In dictatorship, it only happens when the population stops fearing. And when that happens, the window of the politically possible moves like a released floodgate.
What changed was not just public opinion: it changed the moral architecture of the nation.
From obedience to discredit: the collapse of the Chavista story
For years, many Venezuelans hesitated to say what they knew. The regime was perceived as corrupt, abusive and violent, but saying so could cost one’s job, freedom or life. In 2025, that psychological wall has fallen.
One fact sums it all up: 90,89% of the country affirms that the regime of Nicolás Maduro is a narcoterrorist organization. Not an authoritarian government, nor a departure from socialism; a political-military cartel that took over the State.
This is not an ideological turn: it is a verdict. When a society places its ruling elite outside the category of “adversaries” and within the category of “criminals,” politics stops being possible negotiation and becomes administration of an inevitable end.
Chavismo-Madurismo lost the right to be discussed.
The United States returns to the neighborhood and Venezuela opens the door
The survey reveals another historic break: 89,09% supports the actions of the United States and the 47th president, Donald Trump, in relation to Venezuela. In any other Latin American country, this would be a scandalous fact. In Venezuela, it is therapeutic.
External intervention, previously considered taboo, went from being a marginal approach to becoming an openly discussed option. Half of the population supports the direct extraction of Maduro and his circle of power, and a fifth supports even targeted bombings.
To understand what this means, it is worth remembering that Latin American foreign policy has traditionally been defined by a combination of sovereign pride and ritual anti-imperialism. But that creed dies where hunger is born. In countries where the State stops protecting, legitimacy is transferred to whoever can do so.
In Venezuela, the vacuum is occupied by Washington.
The end of fear: Venezuelans no longer believe in civil war
In the Latin American transitions—from Pinochet to Patricio Aylwin Azócar, from the Brazilian military to Fernando Cardoso—the specter of violence was always an obstacle, an excuse and, sometimes, a prophecy. In Venezuela, that ghost disappeared: 93,69% He believes that there will not be a civil war if the pelomaturismo falls.
This is extraordinary.
Citizens not only do not fear collapse: they anticipate it like a civic carnival. 89,36% He says that the day after will be a national holiday. A country that hopes to celebrate is not a country that fears; It is a country that decided to move forward.
Fear no longer disciplines. The regime lost its last instrument.
Moral restitution: Edmundo González and María Corina Machado
Transitions are measured in both institutional legitimacy and symbolic legitimacy. And the polls on July 28, 2024—despite having been denied by the narco-regime—left a shock wave that did not dissipate.
Hoy, 90,08% recognizes Edmundo González as legitimate president of the country. AND 84,49% celebrates the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to María Corina Machado.
The dynamic is clear: Venezuela redefined the border between what is acceptable and what is reprehensible. The mature hair was left out; the democratic opposition remained inside. The framework of what is politically possible was completely moved: the floodgate closed on the regime and opened for its adversaries. In a nation that had two narratives competing for truth, only one survived.
The transition as the only possible policy
The most compelling data is not political; It’s emotional. 81,97% feel hopeful about the recent news about the country. Hope is more than a feeling: it is a social order. It indicates that transition is not an option; It’s an expectation.
And in politics, the expected becomes inevitable.
The country no longer debates whether Chavismo-Madurismo will fall, but rather how, when and under what terms it will be replaced. And it does so with a clarity that evokes the decisive moments of the Iberian and Southern Cone transitions in the 1970s: the consensus is so broad that the negotiation stopped defining the exit and began to limit itself to the details.
A country that decided to move
In his narrative of the collapse of the Roman Empire, historian Edward Gibbon wrote that civilizations die not by suicide, but by murder. In Venezuela, the murder was not a specific act but a slow, chemical, devastating erosion.
But what was decisive was not the institutional deterioration: it was the collective awakening.
The November 2025 survey shows that Venezuela is not waiting for change; is demanding it. The framework of what was politically possible did not shift little by little: it collapsed on the regime and opened a wide, bright and urgent corridor towards the transition.
In a country where nine out of ten citizens think the same, politics stops being arithmetic and becomes geology: the tectonic plate of public opinion is pushing towards a new order.
The question is no longer whether mature hair will fall. The question is what institutional, international and moral form will be taken by what comes next.
And that response—as always in Latin America—will depend on the ability of its leaders to convert a social victory into a state architecture.
What is certain is this: Venezuelan history has already closed a chapter. And what is coming, like it or not, will be a refoundation.
