Created in 2004 during the presidency of , the list originated after millions of citizens signed a petition to trigger a recall referendum against him. While the 1999 Constitution officially championed such participatory mechanisms, the actual exercise of this right became a liability when legislator Luis Tascón published a database of over 2.4 million signatories on his website. The Mechanics of Exclusion
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In late 2003 and early 2004, the Venezuelan opposition gathered over to trigger a recall referendum against President Chávez, as permitted by the 1999 Constitution. Following Chávez’s public denunciation of the petition as an "act against the country," legislator Luis Tascón obtained the names and ID numbers of the signatories and published them on his website. This act was widely viewed as a breach of electoral privacy and a tool for intimidation. Socioeconomic and Political Consequences