{"id":280180,"date":"2026-01-12T02:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T02:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/280180\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T02:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T02:00:24","slug":"explosions-war-were-being-invaded-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/280180\/","title":{"rendered":"Explosions. War. We\u2019re being invaded\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

For residents living in and around the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas, weeks of threats by US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> against Venezuela<\/a>\u2019s dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> led them to prepare for the worst.<\/p>\n

Not only is the base the largest in the city, it was also suspected to be one of the safe locations Maduro used to evade being tracked by the US armada massed on his country\u2019s Caribbean coast.<\/p>\n

Given that her flat in a public housing development is located within Fuerte Tiuna, Ana had an emergency bag with water, medicines and some clothes at the ready. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur part of the base might be residential but it is close by the military area. We were on alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, just outside the base\u2019s perimeter in her family\u2019s apartment, Blanca had a similar bag at the ready. It was in the hall when, last Saturday, after a night staying up late watching television, she went to bed, only to jump out of it five minutes later after a loud \u201cboom\u201d that was followed by all the power failing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen, maybe three seconds later, we heard the first explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the base itself Ana also heard detonations: \u201cSounds like I\u2019d never heard before. The windows rattled, the power went. I just thought: Explosions. War. We\u2019re being invaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their account of the night and its aftermath was given to The Irish Times in phone interviews. Names have been changed to protect identities amid fears of ongoing regime repression in a country ruined by the failed Bolivarian revolution launched by Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and which descended into dictatorship under his successor Maduro.<\/p>\n

As the explosions started, Blanca says she grabbed her child and ran for the hall of their apartment to get away from the windows. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like there was an earthquake; everything was shaking. To explain how I felt at that moment is difficult. There was so much fear. We had talked with our kid about how something like this could happen. But it is one thing to explain this to a child, another to live through it.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Every 10 years, US likes to pick up some crappy little country and throw it at the wall\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the first bomb exploded, their first words were \u2018Mummy I don\u2019t want to die\u2019. I had to control my own fear so that I could calm theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Blanca\u2019s decision was to shelter in place, Ana \u2013 actually living on the military base \u2013 had decided to make a run for it: \u201cIn an emergency I don\u2019t freeze, I get busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She quickly got dressed, grabbed her laptop \u2013 \u201call my work is on it\u201d \u2013 and the emergency bag and headed out. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy but this was my reaction. It was one bomb after another, very close and very strong, they shook the building.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"FireFire at Caracas’s Fuerte Tiuna military base seen from elsewhere in the city early last Saturday. Photograph: AFP\/Getty <\/p>\n

As she left her lower-floor flat she saw neighbours from higher floors streaming down the stairs, families with crying children.<\/p>\n

Eventually she got outside. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen I was hit by the reality of it. It was terrifying. I thought: it\u2019s over.\u201d Smoke was rising from where the bombs had hit. The sky was full of drones, helicopters and planes.<\/p>\n

Then, as she ran to her car, she noticed there was a yellow full moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt struck me as beautiful. It makes no sense to think that at a time like that but that\u2019s just how I am.\u201d <\/p>\n

Eventually she got in her car and away from the base to the house of one of her children in another part of the city.<\/p>\n

From her hall Blanca could hear people in the street outside shouting as the bombing went on. After some time she and her husband went to the window to look. \u201cWe had no idea what was happening. We had to check to confirm it really was an attack. It was like dawn out the sky was so orange and filled with smoke and fire from the explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump\u2019s Walmart warmongering in Venezuela isn\u2019t just empire building. For him it\u2019s entertainmentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

After 90 minutes the bombardment ended and the planes and helicopters left. It was only hours later that Ana and Blanca came to understand the attack was not the start of an invasion and though they had been right by the centre of it, the attackers\u2019 surgical precision meant their neighbourhoods had emerged unscathed, if without power.<\/p>\n

\"FuerteFuerte Tiuna after the US attack. ‘It was terrifying. I thought: it\u2019s over.’ Photograph: Luis Jaimes\/AFP\/Getty <\/p>\n

\u201cI never imagined the bombardment was so targeted. I thought they were destroying everything. It was only later I realised it was something else,\u201d says Ana.<\/p>\n

Neither Ana nor Blanca sound overly moved by news the raid was to seize Maduro from Fuerte Tiuna, pointing out that otherwise his government is still in place. \u201cWe are still governed by the exact same people as before. Maduro was always just part of a group. I don\u2019t feel hope because I don\u2019t think this is the end,\u201d says Blanca.<\/p>\n

Both talk of a climate of fear in the city and a pervading sense of uncertainty. Ana says in its immediate aftermath friends and family shared photos and video of the attack with each other. But as it became clear that the regime remained in charge, everyone deleted everything they worried might get them in trouble with its militias, who have been out on the streets checking people\u2019s phones.<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the Venezuelan national guard at an entrance to Fuerte Tiuna. Photograph: Federico Parra\/AFP\/Getty <\/p>\n

But otherwise normal life is resuming. Shops are open and prices that spiked over the weekend have come back down. People are back at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there is a sense of normal life returning but there is also this feeling of fear,\u201d says Blanca.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Our jailer is gone – but we have been here before. The reality in Venezuela is unchangedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ana is still staying with family in another part of Caracas rather than return to Fuerte Tiuna. With Trump threatening more attacks, she fears the crisis is not yet over. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard to recover when we are living under the threat of another bombardment. I got through just one and since then I cannot stop thinking of those people in wars who have to live through them day after day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For residents living in and around the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas, weeks of threats by US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,42875,7,8,384,4450,2212,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-280180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-nicolas-maduro","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-venezuela","24":"tag-weekendreview","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115879662460215750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}