Venezuela — Legal Help

There is no reliable safety net. The US has had no embassy in Caracas since 2019 (residual matters are handled from Bogotá with no in-country consular access), Canada's mission is closed, and the UK and most EU states keep small embassies with limited reach. Foreigners — especially Americans and dual nationals — have been arbitrarily detained by the SEBIN and DGCIM intelligence services, held without charge and used in negotiations; consular notification under the Vienna Convention is frequently ignored. If detained: give identity details, sign nothing, name your embassy repeatedly, and expect family outside the country working through a Venezuelan lawyer to be your real advocates. Adult sex work is not criminalised; pimping and brothel-keeping are offences, and commercial sex involving under-18s is prosecuted as trafficking under the 2012 organised-crime and trafficking law. The age of consent is 16; the commercial floor is 18. Do not photograph airports, military or police — it triggers espionage accusations.