Venezuela: The Leadership Changes but Nothing Else

In Venezuela, the Leadership Changes But Little Else Does VENEZUELA Venezuela In the hours after the US removal of leader Nicolás Maduro, some Venezuelans allowed themselves to hope. A few laughed and cheered. Others cried in relief. Some even popped the champagne they were saving for a very special occasion. But a day later, that joy and relief were replaced by fear, dread and uncertainty as the country’s new leader escalated a crackdown on dissent. “It feels like it did after the presidential elections in 2024,” María, 55, told the Washington Post, referring to the vote that Maduro allegedly stole from the opposition. “We won, but we also lost.” On Jan. 3, the US attacked Venezuela and seized Maduro and his wife, transporting them to stand trial in the US for drug trafficking and other charges. Soon after, US President Donald Trump said Washington would “run” the country. But on the ground in the days since, there is little evidence of that, say Venezuelans. Instead, all the players of the old Maduro regime are still running the country. “There is no change at all,” Francys Machucas, a banking adviser in Caracas, told the Wall Street Journal. “We are going to remain in the same situation because it’s the same people.” What did change after the Jan. 5 swearing in of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as acting president was the intensity of a long-running crackdown on free expression and dissent. Venezuelans say her administration has unleashed police and pro-government paramilitary units known as “colectivos” on the population. For the past week, these units have set up checkpoints and roamed the streets, looking for supporters of the US action and opponents of the regime. They have been doing so under a new decree, imposed immediately after Maduro’s ouster, which ordered police to arrest anyone “involved in promoting or supporting the armed attack by the United States of America.” The decree suspended the right to protest and authorized broad restrictions on movement and assembly. The government also detained more than a dozen journalists last week. Venezuelans say now, the atmosphere is tense and full of fear, with people afraid even to speak over the phone. “We’re all tapped,” one Venezuelan resident told El País. “It’s very difficult. You say something and they arrest you.” Venezuela is on pause now, said the Spanish newspaper. It described Venezuelans as “Afraid to go out into the street, to speak out, to run out of food, (to get) bombed again.” Maduro supporters, meanwhile, are furious, taking to the streets daily to protest since the president’s ouster. Rosa Contreras, a 57-year-old, says she felt “humiliated” by the US action but was determined to show her support for the former leader by attending a rally calling for Maduro’s release, especially after she saw an image of him waving after arriving in the US. “He had an attitude that sent us a message: If I’m standing here, you have to stand here, stand tall and keep going,” she told the BBC. Meanwhile, there has been no mention of elections by either Trump or the Venezuelan government, although the country’s constitution mandates that a vote must take place within 30 days of the presidency being permanently vacated, the Associated Press noted. Still, Rodríguez maintains that the rightful president of Venezuela is Maduro. At the same time, there has been little mention of the opposition or its leader, Nobel Laureate María Corina Machado, taking over as the country’s president, with Trump insisting that she “doesn’t have the support” within Venezuela, the Hill noted. Machado is the country’s most popular politician. In contrast, Machado praised the US action and told Fox News that “It’s a huge step toward a democratic transition.” The opposition leader, who was in hiding in Venezuela for nearly a year but escaped the country last month, is expected to meet with Trump next week after offering to “share” her Nobel Prize with him. Phil Gunson of the International Crisis Group told NPR that the current government will fight to the death to prevent a democratic transition. “The biggest threat is an outbreak of democracy,” he said. “This is kryptonite for these people. Democracy will see them thrown out.” Along with the political uncertainty, Venezuelans also wondered what would happen economically if the US took over the country’s oil production as Trump has promised to do. For the past decade, Venezuelans have endured hyperinflation in the triple digits, shortages of food and medicine and the collapse of public services. About one-quarter of the population has fled the country. The economy has collapsed, say analysts, likening it to countries that have been through a war. Alexandra Arismendi, who works in a mobile phone shop at the Sambil mall in one of Caracas’s busiest shopping districts, told Al Jazeera she was frustrated with the most recent spikes in the cost of daily essentials. “Prices are high,” she said. “A carton of eggs is selling for $10, which is beyond normal.” Still, some Venezuelans have hope that things will change after the fall of Maduro, and that they will be able to speak freely and choose their own leaders in free elections. “I can’t deny that the future makes me anxious,” Daniel, a gardener who lives just outside of the capital, Caracas, told NBC News. “But I do trust that change can happen from now on.”