The Lawfare Podcast – Archive: How Internet Infrastructure Affects Digital Repression in Venezuela
Release Date: October 18, 2025
Host: Eugenia Lodri
Guest: Esteban Carissimo, Postdoctoral Researcher, Northwestern University
Episode Focus: How Venezuela’s Internet infrastructure has enabled, shaped, and compounded digital repression following controversial presidential elections, and the broader implications for civic life and the country’s future.
Episode Overview
This episode, a Lawfare Archive selection, revisits an August 2024 conversation between Lawfare’s Eugenia Lodri and Esteban Carissimo. On the heels of Venezuela’s widely contested 2024 presidential election, the episode dives into how the country’s aging, poorly maintained, and centrally managed Internet infrastructure enables the Maduro government’s digital repression. They explore the roles of infrastructure, censorship methods, collateral damage to society, and offer thoughts on what it would take for Venezuela’s digital ecosystem to recover if political conditions normalize.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Venezuela’s Political and Digital Context
- Election Controversy: The 2024 presidential election saw the opposition, unified behind Edmundo González, widely believed to have won, yet incumbent Nicolás Maduro claimed victory with 51%—a result heavily disputed domestically and internationally (02:51).
- Opposition Hopes and Repression: There was "a lot of enthusiasm" due to the unified opposition campaign, but the aftermath included both physical and digital repression of protests (04:06, 05:24).
- Digital Repression Escalates: Digital censorship was not new, but now "more severe than in previous cases," extending to key platforms like Twitter/X, WhatsApp, and Reddit (06:57, 07:10).
2. Mechanisms of Digital Censorship
- Types of Censorship:
- Comparison with Other Regimes: Venezuela implements “targeted censorship” due to its relative technological capacity. Some regimes use full shutdowns if they lack technical sophistication (08:45).
- Collateral Damage: Shutdowns or blocks impact far more than political mobilization, disrupting business, families, and access to basic services (11:09).
3. Venezuela’s Infrastructure Crisis
- Motivation and Methodology: Carissimo was motivated to study Venezuela as a unique case: once “wealthy with a thriving middle class and good Internet,” now suffering technological atrophy (12:54).
- Data Sources: Used publicly-available, longitudinal measurement data from platforms like RIPE Atlas and CAIDA, among others (15:11).
- Findings: Catastrophic Decline
- Submarine Cables: Only one planned and deployed since 1998, with "no impact" as it solely serves Cuba, unlike the nearly 40 cables built in the rest of the region (17:44).
- Speed and Access: Median download speeds stagnated at 1 Mbps for a decade, recently rising to 3 Mbps—still less than 10% of the regional average, with new faster access “unaffordable for Venezuelans” (20:56).
- Peering Facilities: Venezuela has four primary peering facilities out of 600 in Latin America (for comparison: Argentina has 50), signaling severe underdevelopment (26:27).
4. Drivers of Underdevelopment and Isolation
- Cantv’s Central Role: The state-run ISP, renationalized in 2007, is insolvent, losing upstream connections with US providers, likely due to insolvency and sanctions (28:29).
- Notable quote: “US based providers or US based companies stop peering with Cantabe, stop announcing or sending traffic to Cantabe... The company is broken so cannot pay...” — Esteban Carissimo (28:29)
- Lack of Content Providers (CDNs): Major international tech companies have avoided or withdrawn investment—some for fear of instability or sanctions (30:46).
5. Impact of Infrastructure on Repression and Society
- Centralization Enables Control: A centralized, state-run infrastructure (Cantv) “makes it simpler to conduct censorship,” underscoring the synergy between technical and political mechanisms (40:19).
- Notable quote: “Centralized infrastructures as the one we see in Venezuela, the lack of alternative paths, make this simpler to conduct censorship.” — Esteban Carissimo (40:19)
- Widespread Societal Harm: Damage extends beyond dissenters: business, education, and social cohesion all suffer.
- Notable quote: “WhatsApp is a widely adopted tool not only to organize a protest, it’s also for... family communication or other businesses.” — Esteban Carissimo (11:09)
6. Pathways for Recovery
- Short-term Fixes:
- “Quick fixes” could come if political normalization allows international providers to “resume their connections”—infrastructure often exists but needs reconnecting (33:12).
- Improving DNS infrastructure is another low-hanging fruit for faster gains.
- Long-term Solutions & Aid:
- New investments required in cables and facilities; noted that aid from regional actors or multilaterals could make a difference (35:56).
- Regional hubs in Colombia, Brazil, or nearby islands (Curacao, Trinidad) could serve as bridges (37:50).
- Notable quote: “If the political issue doesn’t get solved in some way, we will not see any changes, sadly... we will not see that in the Internet either.” — Esteban Carissimo (32:46)
- Importance of Internet in Modern Life:
- Carissimo highlights the Internet’s foundational role in modern society—business, education, communication.
- Personal optimism: “I think everybody knows that the Internet is a key tool for modern life... and I’m optimistic that this is going to happen soon, probably next January.” (41:25)
Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments
- Hope versus Reality:
- "This was the first time in many years in which the opposition unified behind a single platform... This brought a lot of enthusiasm to the population... but the results were quite disappointing." — Esteban Carissimo (04:06)
- Blockade's Human Toll:
- “When Twitter or WhatsApp is blocked, it’s not only the protest, it’s the way you have to communicate with your family that is living abroad.” — Esteban Carissimo (07:10)
- Infrastructure Decay as Policy:
- "Venezuela only planned and deployed one submarine cable since Chavez took office in 1998. One cable. But... this cable has no impact because it only connects to Cuba." — Esteban Carissimo (17:44)
- Economic Access Barriers:
- “High speed services are unaffordable for Venezuelans because they cost 10 times the minimum wage.” — Esteban Carissimo (20:56)
- On Potential for Change:
- “If providers were serving Cantabe... five, ten years back, they have the infrastructure to start serving Cantabe again... flip the switch and start serving Cantabia again.” — Esteban Carissimo (33:12)
Timestamps for Key Segments
- Venezuela’s Election and Protest Context (01:10–05:54)
- Nature and Extent of Digital Censorship (05:54–08:45)
- Technical Mechanisms & Authoritarian Tactics (08:45–11:09)
- Societal Impacts of Censorship (11:09–12:54)
- Infrastructure Analysis—Submarine Cables, Speeds, Facilities (15:11–26:27)
- Role of Cantv and Upstream Disconnections (28:29–30:46)
- CDNs, Modern Services Blocked or Absent (30:46–32:46)
- Recovery Paths: Short- and Long-Term (32:46–37:50)
- Links Between Infrastructure and State Control (39:49–41:25)
- Host and Guest Reflections, Personal Notes (41:25–42:15)
Conclusion
This in-depth conversation lays bare the interdependence of political repression, Internet infrastructure, and daily life in Venezuela. Through vivid technical and human examples, Carissimo and Lodri show not only how authoritarian governments wield digital tools against their citizens, but also how societal decay and lost investment close off the possibilities for open communication and modernization. The episode closes on a note of realistic optimism: after political normalization, rapid digital healing is possible, but only with international will, investment, and urgent attention to this foundational issue.
Listen to the full episode at Lawfare Blog or wherever you get your podcasts.