In this guide, we will explain how to access blocked websites in Venezuela, a country of extraordinary natural treasures, but with a current regime that has censorship and surveillance tendencies than harm people’s online privacy.
Media bans, prohibitions, and shutdowns
Venezuelans, up until 1998, enjoyed a relatively free life. Internet wasn’t too widespread or popular back then, but the country, although it had problems, wasn’t oppressed by any means. With the arrival of Hugo Chavez to the presidency, several sectors started to feel persecuted, mainly media and private companies.
In 2007, one of the primary television networks in the country, RCTV, didn’t get a governmental concession to keep functioning. Since that moment, access to international, non-state owned news site has been difficult: CNN is a pain to get, NTN 24 has been taken down, and several radio stations have suffered the same fate.
Venezuela is not an official dictatorship, and that should be cleared. But Chavez (since 1998 to the moment of his death in 2013) and now Nicolas Maduro have been accused of manipulating the electoral system to their favor, and once in charge, they have led a media blockage and restrictions to only promote state-owned newspapers, TV channels, radio stations, and portals.
In May 2017, with Maduro at the helm, Venezuela reaffirmed and extended its content filtering practices, and more than 300 web pages and 40 Internet domains were blocked, and NTN 24 was completely shut down. The government has also threatened to mess with social media access in the country.
Also, much of the international content is blocked, but due to geo-blocking restrictions. Numerous sites are made to be enjoyed only by local audiences, so entering from Venezuela is not an option unless you have a VPN (more on that later.)
Sudeban’s latest measure
In the last few years, and due to the country’s massive inflation rates and political, financial, and social crisis, millions of Venezuelans have decided to move to other countries in search for better standards of living. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the United States, Ecuador, and Peru are the preferred destinations, but there are Venezuelans currently living in France, Spain, Canada, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Middle East nations.
Since the Venezuelan currency, the Bolivar Soberano, isn’t worth much these days thanks to the absurd inflation rates, most families have a relative living abroad that sends funds obtained by trading the currency in his/her country to Bolivares (in most cases, from US Dollars, Euros or Pesos) after selling a part of his/her earnings in the black market.
Of course, the activity isn’t regulated in Venezuela, but in practice, that is the way most families are managing to buy the necessary goods to maintain a somewhat decent quality of life. However, the primary banking institution in the country, Sudeban, recently stated that people have to notify when they leave the country to use their national banking accounts. If they fail to do so, any usage that Sudeban recognizes with a foreign IP address can result in the account in question being blocked.
That is why, to avoid possible governmental measures if they let them know they left the country, people are finding new ways to change their IP address and enter their banking accounts just as if they were in Venezuela. The best method so far has been implementing a Virtual Private Network.
A VPN for Venezuela
First, let’s define what a VPN is. The word stands for Virtual Private Networks, and they are tools that augment the customer’s privacy and security thanks to their ability to offer the chance of browsing the web anonymously.
VPN technology implements protocols, such as OpenVPN and IKEv2, to build a virtual tunnel in the place to establish direct communication between the user and the servers that the company manages and not those of the Internet Service Provider. ISPs in Venezuela, such as CANTV, are state-owned, so they will provide data to authorities about who visited which site.
In short, the communication established between the user and the remote VPN server will be encrypted, which is why CANTV, Movistar, Digitel, or any other ISP won’t be able to keep data logs of the customer that hires the VPN service.
With a VPN, you could also hide your IP address and access NTN 24, CNN, all the Netflix regions you want and other blocked platforms or networks from the comfort of your Venezuelan home.
On top of that, a VPN with strong security measures and robust encryption will be more than enough to enter your Venezuelan banking accounts from another country without having to respond to Sudeban or any other governmental branch. VPN technology allows the sons and daughters of thousands of Venezuelan mothers that are currently having a hard time gathering enough funds to get by day in and day out.
| Pick a VPN! | VPN | Price for 1 month sub | Site Rating | Buy Now |
| Best VPN |  | $5 a month (code "best10VPN") | 9.9 |  |
| Good VPN |  | $9 a month | 8.9 | |
| Decent VPN |  | $6.95 a month | 8.8 | |
TorGuard: the best VPN to access blocked websites in Venezuela
If you want to enhance your online freedom and access sites that have been banned in Venezuelan territory, TorGuard should be your first, second, and third choice. No VPN brand will manage your traffic and online identity with such responsibility and care than this company. It is known for its high-security focus: it implements all the best protocols (including OpenVPN,) military-grade 256-bit encryption, and a strict no logging policy, while also preventing DNS and IP leaks.
TorGuard is a fantastic tool to access international news sites, banking platforms, streaming services, and more. It provides more than 3,000 servers in 55 nations around the world, with added security features such as DNS leak protection and a kill switch. The brand also allows five simultaneous connections, and it also provides the most responsive and helpful customer service in the business. It costs $10 per month.
In conclusion, if you want to access blocked websites in Venezuela, hire a VPN to enhance your accessibility to a world of opportunities in a country that, sadly, has been exercising increased measures to restrict online freedom to its citizens.
