An investigation by the Associated Press shows that millions of U.S. dollars continue to be funneled to Venezuelan opposition movements in the lead up to this year’s presidential elections through a secretive branch of the development agency U.S. AID. The Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) confirms that it has spent $26 million dollars in Venezuela since 2002, but refuses to disclose which organizations they have financed.

Operating out of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, OTI describes its mission as “to provide fast, flexible, short-term assistance targeted at key political transition and stabilization needs” [Emphasis added]. It currently funds 132 separate projects in the country, but aside from a few politically neutral projects, like setting up little league teams through the U.S. embassy, it will not make public a list of its beneficiaries.

In recent years, pro-Venezuela activists have focused on funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to Venezuelan opposition organizations, yet the OTI funding dwarfs the $3 million dollars that NED has spent in Venezuela since 2002. What’s more, while NED is ostensibly bound by its own bylaws to fund non-partisan work, OTI has no such restrictions. In a report by the Christian Science Monitor early this year, OTI officials explain that their work is “‘overtly political" and particularly tied to foreign-policy goals.

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Elections Update
Our 2006 Elections Center provides you with all the information you need to stay up to date with Venezuela’s presidential elections, slated for this December. New additions this week include analysis of:

Voter Registry: The Venezuelan government has invested in a massive campaign to register citizens to vote, with a particular focus on traditionally marginalized communities. Find out more about “Mission Identity,” which is helping millions of poverty-stricken Venezuelans gain ID cards and voter registration.

Today Vs. the Past: Learn how voting in Venezuela today compares with the pre-Chavez era, in terms of participation, transparency, efficiency and voter access.

Click here for a listing of all our 2006 Elections materials.

NOTE: The Venezuela Information Office is dedicated to informing the American public about contemporary Venezuela, and receives its funding from the government of Venezuela. More information is available from the FARA office of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.