---
title: Centro Gumilla
type: research
status: active
country: VE
website: https://gumilla.org
logo: /assets/org-logos/centro-gumilla.png
contact:
  checked: 2026-07-30
  email: comunicacionesgumilla@gmail.com
  source: https://gumilla.org/contact
summary: A Venezuelan Jesuit social research centre — independent, critically engaged
  with Bolivarian institutions, publishing on community council governance, political
  participation, and social policy since 1968. One of the few credible independent
  governance research bodies operating inside Venezuela.
concepts:
- democracy
- representative-democracy
- accountability-sink
location:
  latitude: 10.4806
  longitude: -66.9036
  name: Caracas, Venezuela
rss_feed: https://gumilla.org/feed
events:
- date: '1968-01-01'
  title: Founded in January 1968 as Venezuela's first CIAS social research centre
  url: https://gumilla.org/tenemos-historia/
  note: 'Site history states: "En enero de 1968 nace la Fundación Centro Gumilla..."
    ("In January 1968 the Fundación Centro Gumilla was born") — founded under Jesuit
    priest Alberto Micheo following the CIAS statutes set by General Pedro Arrupe
    in 1966.'
  proof_level: medium
  url_checked: '2026-08-17'
- date: '1975-01-01'
  title: Revista Comunicación becomes an integral part of the Centre
  url: https://gumilla.org/tenemos-historia/
  note: '"...the magazine Comunicación ... grew and developed from 1975 with autonomy
    and freedom as an integral and essential component of Centro Gumilla''s analyses
    and reflections."'
  proof_level: medium
  url_checked: '2026-08-17'
activity:
  rss:
    checked: 2026-08-09
    date: 2026-08-04
    note: 'Latest post: Centro Gumilla, FUNDACEDEAP y Excuela consolidan alianza estratégica
      para formar'
    url: https://gumilla.org/alianza-gumilla-formacion-mujeres-emprendedoras/
last_checked: '2026-06-29'
---

> **Note on scope:** Centro Gumilla meets DOD criteria as an independent research organisation studying governance mechanisms — not because Venezuela's national political system does. Maduro's Venezuela clearly fails the good-faith test; Centro Gumilla is included as a credible independent analyst operating inside that context.

Centro Gumilla is a Jesuit social research and education centre founded in January 1968 and based in Caracas. It is one of the few organisations inside Venezuela conducting independent, empirically grounded research on governance — including critical analysis of the Bolivarian institutions, community council model, and participatory democracy mechanisms introduced under Chávez and continued under Maduro.

Venezuela's **Consejos Comunales** (Community Councils), introduced under a 2006 law, were an architecturally distinctive participatory governance experiment: by 2010, over 30,000 neighbourhood-level councils had been registered, each with direct access to state development funding — bypassing traditional municipal government and giving local bodies budget authority over community projects. The design drew on theories of participatory and protagonistic democracy. Centro Gumilla was among the few organisations studying this model empirically rather than ideologically.

Venezuela's national political system under Maduro now clearly fails DOD's good-faith test: elections are not competitive, civil society is systematically constrained, and the gap between the stated democratic project and the structural reality is entrenched. Centro Gumilla's value to the landscape is as an independent witness and analyst operating inside this context — documenting what works, what has degraded, and what the original participatory design was trying to achieve.

## Work areas

- Community council governance — empirical study of how consejos comunales function and where they have degraded
- Political participation and citizenship research
- Social policy analysis
- Civic education programmes
- Independent media (*Revista SIC* — one of Venezuela's oldest continuous independent publications)

## Links

- Website: [gumilla.org](https://gumilla.org)

## See also

- [Democracy](../concepts/democracy.md)
- [Representative Democracy](../concepts/representative-democracy.md)
- [Accountability Sink](../concepts/accountability-sink.md)