With just days remaining before Venezuela’s parliamentary and regional elections, President Nicolás Maduro’s regime has claimed to have thwarted what it describes as a large-scale terrorist scheme aimed at derailing the vote. 

Authorities allege that the plot involved coordinated attacks on infrastructure, public institutions, and opposition figures, prompting heightened security measures and an abrupt suspension of flights from neighbouring Colombia, La Nación reported.

Maduro, alongside Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, announced the dismantling of the purported operation, which they claimed targeted hospitals, power stations, police units, and diplomatic sites. 

Both officials accused opposition leader María Corina Machado of masterminding the conspiracy. Maduro went further, linking the alleged network to US officials and using inflammatory rhetoric to associate Machado with foreign criminal interests.

Flights between Colombia and Venezuela have been suspended from May 19 to 26. Authorities claimed the plot was also backed by ex-Colombian presidents, who they labelled as figures tied to drug trafficking. 

Cabello stated that 38 individuals had been detained, including 17 foreign nationals—among them Colombians, Ukrainians, and Mexicans—allegedly caught re-entering Venezuela with explosives.

The one-week flight ban is expected to impact around 3,000 passengers and 30 flights, according to Marisela de Loaiza, head of Venezuela’s airline and tourism associations. Carriers such as Avianca, Latam, Wingo, Laser, and Satena have begun rebooking travellers and issuing refunds, Efecto Cocuyo reported. 

The disruption also undercuts regional connectivity efforts restored since late 2022, posing setbacks for tourism, business travel, and cargo services that rely on established air corridors.

Venezuela and Colombia resumed flights in November 2022 following the election of Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first leftist president, who restored diplomatic relations that had been severed in 2019 when his predecessor Ivan Duque rejected the legitimacy of Maduro's re-election to a second term.

Since former president Hugo Chávez first assumed office in 1999, Venezuela’s ruling party has routinely unveiled alleged conspiracies in the lead-up to elections—a pattern that has only intensified under President Nicolás Maduro. 

These recurring claims, often aimed at the opposition and foreign actors, are widely seen by analysts as strategic tools to discredit challengers, tighten state control, and galvanise political support.

From 1999 through May 2025, researchers have identified between 10 and 15 pre-election accusations of coup attempts or sabotage plots, with a noticeable spike in frequency in recent years.

Venezuela is set to hold parliamentary and regional elections on May 25, with Maduro expected to consolidate power as the main opposition parties largely call for a boycott following the July 2024 disputed presidential vote.

Turnout is projected to be low for the election of 24 governors and 285 legislators. Only Russia, Cuba and a few allies recognised Maduro's contested victory over opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

According to AFP, the government has deployed 400,000 security personnel after claiming to have captured foreign mercenaries planning to disrupt the vote.

Voting will also take place in Essequibo, an oil-rich region administered by Guyana but claimed by Venezuela.

Polls show Maduro's United Socialist Party (PSUV) winning an overwhelming parliamentary majority and all but two of 24 states, with opposition factions divided on strategy. Machado, in hiding since July, called the vote "a farce," while former opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles argues change can only come through elections.