{"id":493581,"date":"2026-01-05T07:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493581\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T07:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:33:14","slug":"after-maduros-capture-venezuelans-in-caracas-reckon-with-a-weekend-for-the-history-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493581\/","title":{"rendered":"After Maduro\u2019s capture, Venezuelans in Caracas reckon with a weekend \u2018for the history books\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caracas, Venezuela
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n The morning after US forces bombed Caracas, dragged President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> out of bed, carted him over the Caribbean and installed him in a Brooklyn jail<\/a>, many Venezuelans hurried to the grocery store.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhy did I have to go out?\u201d said Judith Ledezma. \u201cI have a pet that needs exercise and I was really stressed out staying indoors.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Her orange dog sat beside her on a park bench in Caracas, along with numerous shopping bags. Ledezma, who lives near one of the airbases hit by US airstrikes, told CNN the noise from the attack woke her up.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI thought it was an earthquake,\u201d Ledezma said. \u201cI got scared and came running out with my daughter and the dog.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe have no idea what our fate will be now with this new situation,\u201d Ledezma continued. \u201cI am completely in the dark. I have no idea what is going to happen to the country, to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Judith<\/p>\n

\n The government in Caracas wants Venezuelans out and about, though the streets are quiet, apart from a few militia members mustering with their motorcycles. Defense Minister Vlad\u00edmir Padrino Lopez told people Sunday to \u201cresume their economic activities, work, and all other types of activities, including educational activities, in the coming days.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Olga Jimenez told CNN she finally left her house on Sunday after staying in all of Saturday. Maduro or no Maduro, Jimenez said, she doesn\u2019t expect much to change in Venezuela \u2013 except maybe the lines at the shops.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve been glued to the TV, watching to see what\u2019s going on, and what there is is uncertainty,\u201d Jimenez said. \u201cYou don\u2019t feel a change of government because everything is the same. The only thing is that we don\u2019t know.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat\u2019s happening to us is that places aren\u2019t open, and you have to line up for everything, as if we were going backwards to the Ch\u00e1vez era, when you had to line up everywhere just to buy things,\u201d Jimenez added. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to put it \u2013 it was Maduro\u2019s government, and they should have taken them all, not just Maduro.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Maria Azocar, meanwhile, told CNN that \u201chaving lived through so much, nothing really worries me anymore.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAs I say, this is for the history books,\u201d Azocar said, before listing the names of past Venezuelan leaders: \u201c(Marcos) P\u00e9rez Jim\u00e9nez, (Isa\u00edas Medina) Angarita, R\u00f3mulo Gallegos, Juan Vicente G\u00f3mez \u2013 people who, in their time, were overthrown or displaced.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ll tell you something straight: It was really an abuse on the part of the Americans,\u201d Azocar said of the attack, \u201cbecause they intimidated the people with their missiles. That says it all.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Acting President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/a> (whom Azocar said US President Donald Trump \u201cappointed\u201d to lead the country) is \u201ca woman of real strength,\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think with her, it eases people\u2019s hearts a little, on one side and the other,\u201d Azocar said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The United States is apparently tolerating having Rodr\u00edguez in charge, for now. Saturday, Trump told reporters he thought opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a> didn\u2019t have the \u201crespect\u2019 or \u201csupport\u201d to lead the country.\n <\/p>\n

\"Venezuelan<\/p>\n

\n Resident Mario Valdez told CNN he thought an immediate, forceful transition to opposition rule \u201ccould lead us into violence.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt would mean the reds leave only for the blues to take over,\u201d Valdez said, referring to the left and right respectively, \u201cin a country which, at this moment, after 26 years of a Chavista government, can\u2019t handle, because it would lead to another bloodbath, like we\u2019ve had in the past.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, Valdez said he is hopeful for a democratic transition, eventually.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI believe this democratic transition must take place, and we will all take part in it,\u201d Vladez said. \u201cThe first thing the president of the Republic must do is release the political prisoners \u2013 all of them. There is no reason whatsoever for them to remain imprisoned.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Valdez said he also hopes international oil companies will return to Venezuela. His country has been plundered for years by Russia, China and Iran, he said, which provided nothing in return for Venezuela\u2019s vast oil wealth.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey stole all the money from this country to build major projects and did absolutely nothing,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cThe motorways are unfinished.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n All told, Valdez said, he was unsurprised by Maduro\u2019s abduction. \u201cPresident Maduro should have been prudent and accepted one of the offers that were made to him; he was made multiple offers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe should have called new elections,\u201d Valdez said, referring to the 2024 election<\/a> that most observers say Maduro lost, despite clinging to power. \u201cThat is what I would have done: called new elections with a new National Electoral Council, changed things and summoned in the country a spirit of concord, where all organizations could take part.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut that didn\u2019t happen, and so there are consequences \u2013 without making value judgments about whether all that was right or wrong.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caracas, Venezuela \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The morning after US forces bombed Caracas, dragged President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro out of bed, carted…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-493581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115841335591412600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}