{"id":12931,"date":"2026-05-17T16:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/17\/feels-like-an-illusion-inside-post-maduro-venezuelas-bewildering-new-era-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T16:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:21:17","slug":"feels-like-an-illusion-inside-post-maduro-venezuelas-bewildering-new-era-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/17\/feels-like-an-illusion-inside-post-maduro-venezuelas-bewildering-new-era-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Feels like an illusion\u2019: inside post-Maduro Venezuela\u2019s bewildering new era – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When \u00c1ngel Linares heard a strange buzz followed by an explosion, his first thought was that neighbours were setting off fireworks to celebrate the new year.<\/p>\n

Then his windows shattered, the building\u2019s walls shook and its facade was ripped off, sending him flying on to the ground of an apartment suddenly reduced to rubble. His 85-year-old mother, Jesucita, feared Venezuela\u2019s northern coast had been devastated by an earthquake, like the one she remembers from 1967.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>\u00c1ngel Linares, 48, in his rebuilt apartment in Catia La Mar.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next door, Elizabeth Herrera jumped out of bed in her pyjamas and realised something more sinister was afoot when the post-explosion silence was filled with the sound of gunfire: \u201cTah-tah-tah-tah-tah-po-po-tah-tah-tah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it a coup? \u2026 I don\u2019t believe \u2018Pap\u00e1 Trump\u2019 would have dared to invade,\u201d Herrera remembers her husband speculating as their housing estate\u2019s panicked residents struggled to make sense of the mayhem just before 2am on 3 January.<\/p>\n

All four residents of the Urbanizaci\u00f3n R\u00f3mulo Gallegos project in Catia La Mar, a seaside town 20 miles north of Caracas, were wrong. Donald Trump had indeed ordered an invasion of Venezuela, albeit a lightning-fast one to abduct the country\u2019s then president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Damaged buildings in the Urbanizaci\u00f3n R\u00f3mulo Gallegos housing project in Catia La Mar.<\/span> Photograph: \u00c1ngel Linares<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Their community found itself at the eye of the storm as air-to-surface missiles rained down<\/a> on defence and radar systems and radars along the country\u2019s Caribbean coast and helicopter-borne Delta Force fighters swept south towards the capital. \u201cThey were 10 minutes that felt like an interminable hour,\u201d said Herrera, who lost two elderly neighbours during the attack that was apparently targeting military installations on a nearby hill.<\/p>\n

She recalled her autistic son\u2019s anguish as they rushed out into the darkness and sheltered in a nearby school. \u201cMummy, are we the baddies? Are Venezuelans the baddies? Are they going to kill us?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him, \u2018No, it\u2019s probably just an issue between the White House and Miraflores,\u2019\u201d she replied, referring to Venezuela\u2019s presidential palace.<\/p>\n

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\"Elizabeth<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Elizabeth Herrera outside her home in Catia La Mar.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo why are they shooting at us?\u201d her son insisted. \u201cIn his autistic mind \u2026 it made no sense that if this was a thing between governments, why were the missiles falling here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\ufeffMore than four months after Operation Absolute Resolve<\/a>, Herrera and her neighbours are far from the only ones still trying to make sense of Trump\u2019s intervention and its impact on the future of a country already reeling from years of poverty, hunger and repression.<\/p>\n

Across Venezuela, ordinary citizens, opposition activists, diplomats, businesspeople and members of Maduro\u2019s movement are trying to fathom the bewildering new era ushered in by the autocrat\u2019s capture and Trump\u2019s unexpected decision to recognise his vice-president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/a>, who has held power since.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is so confusing \u2026. This feels sometimes like an illusion,\u201d said Jes\u00fas Armas, a former political prisoner and ally of the exiled opposition leader and Nobel laureate, Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, who had hoped to take power but has been sidelined from Venezuela\u2019s post-Maduro transformation.<\/p>\n

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\"Jes\u00fas<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Jes\u00fas Armas.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Changes have undoubtedly occurred since Maduro\u2019s 13-year rule was brought to an end during a two-and-a-half hour blitz that left scores of Cuban and Venezuelan troops and at least three civilians dead.<\/p>\n

After years of increasingly despotic rule, which deepened after Maduro was accused of stealing the 2024 presidential election, an incipient political thaw has descended.<\/p>\n

Murals of Maduro have been painted over, his portraits quietly removed from some government offices, and foreign journalists are being allowed into the country for the first time since the 2024 vote.<\/p>\n

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\"Two<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>A mural of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife Cilia in Catia La Mar.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed and dissidents have emerged from hiding or returned from exile to continue their push for a transition back to democracy.<\/p>\n

On a recent evening, hundreds of people gathered outside Venezuela\u2019s most notorious political prison<\/a> \u2013 a shopping mall-turned-torture centre called El Helicoide \u2013 for a previously unthinkable protest to demand fresh elections and the release of the estimated 500 detainees remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have lost their fear,\u201d said Jeisi Blanco, a human rights campaigner, as colleagues chalked the names of those still incarcerated on the pavement under the gaze of police who filmed participants but did not intervene.<\/p>\n

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\"Jeisi<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Jeisi Blanco holds a sign that says \u201c+500 political prisoners far from home\u201d outside El Helicoide.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey aren\u2019t just statistics, they are people with stories and with families who have spent more than three years behind bars,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Armas, who was released from El Helicoide in February<\/a> as a gesture from Maduro\u2019s heirs, said: \u201cI feel great \u2026 I feel hope right now. I know that we are going to change this country.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/svg><\/span>Activist writes the names of political prisoners still incarcerated in a vigil outside El Helicoide<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/gu-island><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to bring back freedom \u2026 and I know Venezuela will be a democracy in the next few months,\u201d he said, insisting Machado would return in the coming weeks to tour Venezuela, rally supporters and complete its political transformation.<\/p>\n

US officials also celebrate what many here call the \u201cnew political moment\u201d enabled by Trump\u2019s audacious, although, to many, illegal raid. \u201c<\/em>The president likes action. He also likes deals, and he likes progress, and we\u2019re seeing all of that in a very short period of time,\u201d said Jarrod Agen, the director of Trump\u2019s national energy dominance council, after arriving in Caracas on the first US commercial flight to the oil-rich country<\/a> in more than seven years.<\/p>\n

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\"People<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Jarrod Agen speaking to reporters in Caracas.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re moving at Trump speed \u2026 I\u2019m super excited,<\/em>\u201d he said, flanked by smiling Venezuelan officials who have spent years at loggerheads with their US counterparts.<\/p>\n

But alongside the excitement and optimism there is bafflement and trepidation about the fact that Maduro\u2019s rendition led not to fully fledged regime change or democratisation, but to a peculiar rapprochement between the fallen dictator\u2019s authoritarian allies and their longtime foes in Washington.<\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly praised Rodr\u00edguez as a \u201cterrific\u201d partner, while Venezuela\u2019s new leader has given no indication that fresh elections are coming. \u201cI don\u2019t know, some time,\u201d she deflected<\/a> when asked recently when a vote might be held.<\/p>\n

Caracas-based diplomats voice astonishment at the political handbrake turn performed by Maduro\u2019s supposedly anti-imperialist successors, who have rolled out the red carpet for Trump officials \u2013 and allowed Venezuela to be turned into what some have called a US protectorate<\/a> \u2013 with virtually no explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the theatre of the absurd, it\u2019s Beckett,\u201d said one foreign envoy, recalling how, after Japan\u2019s 1945 surrender to allied forces, Emperor Hirohito urged citizens to \u201cbear the unbearable and endure the unendurable\u201d to salvage their nation\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Supporters gather to hear Delcy Rodr\u00edguez speak at a rally in Caracas in April.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s team had offered no such justification for embracing Trump, the diplomat said: \u201cThey just went from A to B without explaining why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experts say the once improbable marriage of convenience between Washington and Caracas is rooted in Trump\u2019s desire to secure access to Venezuela\u2019s vast oil reserves and for a foreign policy \u201cwin\u201d amid the debacle in Iran, and Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s determination to retain power and save the political movement Hugo Ch\u00e1vez founded more than 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose is not to be the cat\u2019s paw of the United States, to be a partner of the United States,\u201d said Tom Shannon, a US diplomat who has worked with Venezuela since the 90s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose is to maintain and preserve the Bolivarian revolution, to the extent that it can be preserved, and to do what has to be done in order for that revolution to be preserved and for the political leadership that has defined it to be able to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>A man walks past posters celebrating Delcy Rodr\u00edguez in Caracas.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure she feels it to be humiliating,\u201d he said of Rodr\u00edguez, whom he has met numerous times. \u201cShe finds herself in a position that I\u2019m sure she sees as politically complicated and difficult, but historic in terms of the trajectory of the Bolivarian revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

For opponents of the movement, who blame it for an economic and humanitarian disaster<\/a> that has forced about a quarter of the country\u2019s population to flee abroad, the d\u00e9tente and incomplete transition have left a bitter taste.<\/p>\n

Sitting outside her home, next to a government memorial to the victims of Trump\u2019s attack, Herrera recalled her initial exhilaration at what seemed like imminent change, even as parts of her housing estate lay ruined.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was all over \u2026 I thought, thank goodness we\u2019re going to escape this situation which is strangling us,\u201d she said, a freshly painted government mural behind her bearing the message: \u201cWe will prevail\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Elizabeth Herrera standing in front a government mural bearing the slogan \u2018We will prevail\u2019.<\/span> Photograph: Andrea Hern\u00e1ndez Brice\u00f1o\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But as the days passed, the excitement turned to dismay. \u201cOn the news they talk about how much oil they\u2019ve taken and how much gold \u2026 yet we\u2019re stuck in the same place \u2026 [If Trump came here] I\u2019d ask him to think about Venezuelans and not just the natural resources that Venezuela has,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel hope but I also feel fear \u2026 Our fear is harbouring hope that the situation is going to change and then this not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting on a sofa beside a shrapnel-pocked portrait of Venezuela\u2019s liberation hero Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, Jesucita Linares said her main worry was a repeat attack.<\/p>\n

In preparation, she has turned her shopping trolley into an emergency go-bag filled with clothes and medicine. \u201cI\u2019ve been asking God for this never to happen again,\u201d said Linares. \u201cBut you never really know.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When \u00c1ngel Linares heard a strange buzz followed by an explosion, his first thought was that neighbours were setting off fireworks to celebrate the new year. Then his windows shattered, the building\u2019s walls shook and its facade was ripped off, sending him flying on to the ground of an apartment suddenly reduced to rubble. His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}