It was constructed and is operated by Compañía Anónima Metro de Caracas,[4] a government-owned company that was founded in 1977 by José González-Lander who headed the project for more than thirty years since the early planning stages in the 1960s.

In 1978 MTA – New York City Transit's R46 #816 (now 5866) was shipped from the Pullman Standard's plant as a sample of rolling stock to be used for the new metro system that was under construction at the time.

The C. A. Metro de Caracas is in charge of its construction, operation and exploitation as a decentralized public body attached to the Ministry of People's Power for Land Transportation.

As a consequence of the crisis that the country is experiencing, by October 2018 it was estimated that 25% of the Caracas Metro trains were out of service due to lack of maintenance.

In December 2006, the government awarded a 2 billion dollar contract for the construction of the new line between a soon-to-be-built Caracas Metro Parque del Este II station and the nearby twin cities of Guarenas/Guatire, with completion set for July 2012.

[7] The system possesses a complementary bus transit network called the Metrobus, which covers 20 urban routes and four suburban routes, with the aim of transporting users to other popular destinations in the Greater Caracas area that are not reached by the metro, including bedroom communities close to the city.

While Metro de Caracas said this was because of a passenger number assessment, workers revealed that the government had not given the company hard money for over a year, and they could not import paper to print tickets, necessitating unlocked turnstiles.

A separate project was to be carried out simultaneously, an additional 6.7 km (4.2 mi) Line 2 extension (also known as Line 5 or Metro Guarenas-Guatire Urban Route during the construction phase) with four additional stations in Montecristo, Boleíta, El Marques and terminal/transfer station La Urbina (Petare Norte).