Venezuela holds its Second National Popular Consultation this Sunday with 5,418 communal circuits choosing among over 37,000 locally proposed projects in water, roads, lighting, health and education.

Venezuela will hold its second National Popular Consultation of the year on October 18, in which communes across the country will vote directly on 37,205 budget proposals, with each winning project set to receive an initial $10,000 administered by the community itself.

The vote covers 48,086 communal councils grouped into 5,418 territorial circuits, which the source describes as guaranteeing self-government at the neighborhood level.

RELATED: Venezuela Presents Venezuela Renace Plan Update 100 Days After Earthquakes

To facilitate participation, authorities have set up 11,495 voting centers and 12,769 polling tables nationwide. The process will be guarded by 13,000 members of the Republic Plan security deployment, with operational support from more than 36,000 communal members advised by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

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What Voters Will Decide

The proposals are tied to the government’s Concrete Action Agenda. The City and Services sector has the largest share, with 19,028 projects focused on water, electricity, roads and hospital infrastructure. The social area has 9,217 initiatives, and the economic sector has 4,887 proposals to boost local production.

Each project chosen by popular vote will receive an initial allocation of $10,000, to be managed and carried out directly by the commune. Institutional spokespeople said earlier editions closed with more than 80% successful executions, thanks to what they called the rigorous application of preventive social oversight.

First Condominium Vote

One structural change stands out this year. More than 89 condominiums and horizontal property movements from Aragua, Miranda and the Capital District have joined the process formally. It is the first time these residential boards can put forward priority projects of their own, from elevator repairs to improvements in basic services inside buildings.

In the days before the vote, communes carried out house-to-house outreach to promote the proposals now heading to the ballot. That door-knocking campaign carried each initiative into homes and opened neighbor-to-neighbor debate over territorial priorities.

The Sunday vote will also promote the active participation of young people aged 15 and older, which authorities say favors generational renewal in local public management.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, speaking in at the Villa Zoila commune, emphasized that “the people are exercising a protagonistic and participatory form of democracy.”

“We are going to democracy, to participation and to the emotion that always comes with going to an election,” she said.

Rodríguez connected the vote to the delivery of the National Budget before the National Assembly. That spending plan, she explained, is built “from the communes.” Communes and community organizations take part in deciding where resources will be invested, an advance she said Venezuela must preserve.

The second edition of the year confirms the National Popular Consultation has moved beyond an isolated event. It now functions as a recurring mechanism of popular decision, with organized communes as the leading actors in local public spending, as a pillar of participatory democracy in Venezuela.

José Raúl Mulino received a team of 51 Venezuelan specialists sent by Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez following an Oct. 9 earthquake.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino received a Venezuelan humanitarian delegation of 51 specialists on Wednesday, sent by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez to provide technical assistance following the earthquake that struck Panama on Oct. 9.

RELATED: Panama Thanks Venezuela for Assistance Following the 7.7-Magnitude Earthquake.

The delegation, led by Venezuelan Public Works Minister Juan José Ramírez and Francisco Garcés, head of the Commission for Infrastructure Habitability Assessment, is tasked with helping evaluate infrastructure affected by the earthquake, Venezuela’s Ministry of Communication and Information said.

Mulino thanked the Venezuelan government for sending the team, highlighting its role in assessing critical infrastructure in the aftermath of the seismic event.

Text Reads: IMPORTANT: 🇵🇦 The President of the Republic of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, received the Venezuelan humanitarian delegation of specialists, sent by President Delcy Rodríguez.

“I thank the government of Venezuela for sending 51 experts in infrastructure evaluation. It will be of great help,” Mulino wrote on social media.

Before the meeting with Mulino, the Venezuelan delegation held talks with senior Panamanian officials at the Government Palace to coordinate technical cooperation. Panama was represented by José Ramón Icaza, minister for Canal Affairs and secretary of Presidential Goals; Deputy Presidential Minister Virna Luque; Deputy Public Works Minister Iván de Icaza; and Deputy Education Infrastructure Minister Delia Marcela Herrera.

Text Reads: I thank the government of Venezuela for sending 51 experts in infrastructure evaluation. It will be of great help.

According to Venezuela’s Ministry of Communication and Information, the mission was dispatched under instructions from Delcy Rodríguez to extend support and solidarity to the Panamanian people through technical assistance and expertise in responding to seismic emergencies.

The delegation’s arrival marks a bilateral cooperation effort focused on assessing infrastructure safety after the Oct. 9 earthquake.

The United States on Wednesday lifted sanctions against Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s National Assembly and brother of the South American country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, the Treasury Department reported.

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