Politics & Governance / Domestic Politics / Authoritarianism & Dictatorship

How Venezuela Used a Simple Database to Destroy 3% of Its Economy

The Maisanta Database and Political Retribution in Venezuela

Alberto Chong, Edward Miguel, Daniel Ortega, Francisco Rodríguez

In 2004, millions of Venezuelans signed a petition to recall President Hugo Chávez. Two years later, those same people had lost their jobs, their salaries had dropped by 5%, and the country's GDP had shrunk by 3%. The tool? A desktop software called Maisanta that matched voter data with welfare records. This isn't a story about politics—it's a warning about what happens when data becomes a weapon. We break down the 2009 NBER study by Chong, Miguel, Ortega, and Rodriguez, showing how a government used a database to silently purge its middle class. No violence. No arrests. Just a few keystrokes. The result? A nation's talent wasted, its economy crippled. Watch to understand how the same technology you use daily could be turned against you.