This article is by F. Brinley Bruton reporting from Bogotá, Colombia, and a Caracas-based reporter who is not being identified because of safety concerns.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — One week after United States special forces captured Venezuela’s strongman leader Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump declared on social media Saturday the country “rich and safe again,” and praised what he called the success of the operation.
On the ground, however, few things are certain, including basic questions of daily security, whether Venezuela’s autocratic government will stay in place, the fate of political prisoners, who will ultimately revitalize its vast and decrepit oil industry, and whether the once-rich country will ever prosper again.
On Friday afternoon at an eastern Caracas social club — one of many private organizations resembling small country clubs — three mothers watched their children play, and discussed whether they should send them to school on Monday when they are due to reopen after the Christmas break.
Two of them said they would and a third that she didn’t dare. The three as well as other residents NBC News spoke with asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals.
As darkness fell, one of them, a 34-year-old publicist, asked if they should get something to eat with the children.
Her friend demurred.
“I live on the other side of the city, I better get going because the situation isn’t safe enough to be out so late,” the 38-year-old lawyer said.
Throughout Caracas, state security forces and colectivos — groups of armed civilians supportive of the Venezuelan regime — roam the streets checking people’s telephones for signs of anti-government sentiments and support of the United States raid that resulted in Maduro’s capture.
This is especially true in the working-class areas.
“Here we see a bit of everything,” said a 30-year-old motorcycle taxi driver who lives in the working-class Petare neighborhood. “There are military, police and colectivos.”
During a Friday nighttime tour of the capital, powerful and feared Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello declared that the country was at peace because the state still “has the monopoly and full control of weapons.”
“Having possession of the weapons has allowed us to maintain control, so that no group can claim responsibility for acts of violence other than those perpetrated by the United States in the early morning of January 3rd,” said Cabello, who oversees police, counterintelligence forces and the colectivos.
On Saturday, the U.S. State Department issued an updated travel advisory urging Americans to leave Venezuela immediately now that international flights have resumed.
The advisory also warned of armed militia groups setting up roadblocks and looking for evidence of U.S. citizenship or support for the United States.
‘Uninvestable’
Once Latin America’s richest country, Venezuela went into economic freefall during the last two decades. Nearly 8 million people have fled, creating one of the world’s worst refugee crises. Some 90% of the population is deemed poor, while 50% live in extreme poverty. All this in a country that sits on the world’s largest known oil reserves.
While he cited a desire to stamp out groups that control Venezuela’s illicit drug trade, which have seeped into the government, Trump has also repeatedly made clear his interest in the country’s oil. On Wednesday he told The New York Times that the U.S. could stay in charge “for years” to lead the revival of the vast energy sector.
“American companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela’s rotting energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never, ever seen before,” he said Friday at the opening of a meeting with the heads of some of the world’s largest oil companies. “We’re going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in.”
His bid to entice oil majors to begin investing in Venezuela was met with polite skepticism by Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods, who said Venezuela was currently “uninvestable.”
“We’ve had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes,” he said, adding: “We’re confident that with this administration and President Trump, working hand in hand with the Venezuelan government, that those changes can be put in place.”
Trump has said that he is in control in Venezuela, and his government is working well with interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s vice president.
“As you know, we’re getting along very well with the administration that is there right now,” he told The New York Times. “They’re giving us everything that we feel is necessary.”
Despite his positive words about the regime, which is practically unchanged save Maduro’s absence, in the last few days Trump has made overtures to María Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader who was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 general election. A candidate who stood in her stead is widely considered to have won the vote but Maduro claimed victory.
After saying Machado did not have the support necessary to lead the country in the Jan. 3 raid’s immediate aftermath, Trump on Thursday said he looked forward to meeting her next week in Washington.
Venezuela without Maduro
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government’s public stance on the U.S. remains contradictory.
Officials announced on Friday the start of an “exploratory diplomatic process” with the U.S., aimed at the “restoration of diplomatic missions in both countries” and to address the consequences of the “kidnapping” of Maduro and his wife, Cilia.
State media outlets broadcast programs discussing the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution, as the movement founded by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez is called. Footage of demonstrations against the U.S. attack and demanding the liberation of Maduro and his wife run frequently.
The president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, said Thursday that the government would be releasing an “important number” of political prisoners, an announcement Trump lauded in a post Saturday on Truth Social.
“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!” Trump wrote. “I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done. I HOPE THEY NEVER FORGET! If they do, it will not be good for them.”
Danieli Hernández, daughter of political prisoner Nélida Sánchez, was overjoyed that her mother could be returning home. But according to human rights organizations, fewer than 15 of the country’s 800 political prisoners have been released. Sánchez wasn’t one of them.
Now Hernández lives in a state of distress.
“We’re living one day at a time,” she said. “I hope her turn comes soon.”
The Caracas night was unusually silent Friday. During the day, businesses such as supermarkets, pharmacies, bakeries and cafés are open, at night many bars and restaurants still keep their doors closed. The businesses that do open close early, around 7 p.m., and many resident people prefer to get home before 10 p.m.
This situation is not unique to Caracas.
“When I go out I always leave my phone at home because there is still repression,” says a 56-year-old who used to work for PDVSA, the country’s state-owned oil and gas company, and lives in the coastal city of Puerto Cabello in Carabobo state.
“We have mixed feelings. We are waiting, silently, for the moment when we can celebrate,” he said. “Here where I live, everyone is quiet, no joy in the streets, nothing. Everyone in silence.”
