Venezuelan capital quiet, streets empty after US strike

CARACAS – A lingering smell of explosives hung over Venezuela’s capital Caracas on Jan 3 as shocked residents took stock after an early-morning US strike that ousted
leader
Nicolas Maduro.

While a few hundred Maduro supporters gathered to clamour for his freedom, the streets were otherwise eerily quiet.

“I felt the explosions lift me out of bed. In that instant, I thought: ‘My God, the day has come’ and I cried,” Ms Maria Eugenia Escobar, a 58-year-old resident of the city of six million people, told AFP.

The strikes started at around 2am local time (2pm, Singapore time), with dozens of detonations that some people at first mistook for fireworks.

Windows rattled from the shock waves and residents rushed out onto terraces and balconies as military aircraft zoomed overhead.

“It was horrible, we felt the planes flying over our house,” said a resident of the Coche neighborhood, near the city’s largest military complex, which was targeted in the raid.

Residents saw columns of smoke rising from several parts of the city, which was soon cloaked in a fog-like haze.

Witnesses spoke of bombings in La Guaira, Caracas’ airport and port, in Maracay to the west, and in Higuerote to the east.

‘Absurd’

In the aftermath, Venezuelans soon learnt their long-ruling leader Maduro was out.

US special forces seized him and took him to face trial in New York.

A few hundred supporters gathered in Caracas to demand news of their leader’s fate.

“Long live Nicolas Maduro,” echoed a rally cry from a hastily erected stage with speakers blaring revolutionary music.

“Long live!” responded the crowd.

Ms Katia Briceno, a 54-year-old university professor, came out to protest against what she described as US “barbarism”.

“How is it that a foreign government comes into the country and removes the president? It’s absurd.” she told AFP.

Apart from the protesters, there were few Venezuelans out, and just occasional cars on the usually bustling streets.

Those who did venture out did so under the watchful eye of black-clad agents patrolling the centre with long guns.

Many stores were closed after the attack, while queues formed at others that were letting people in a few at a time.

Damage from the explosions was mostly limited to military installations, where vehicles stood riddled by bullets, with others smouldering and charred.

Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino Lopez accused the US forces of attacking civilian areas with missiles and rockets fired from combat helicopters.

President Donald Trump said no US soldiers died in the Jan 3 strikes, but the toll on the Venezuelan side remained unknown.

For residents of Caracas, the future is uncertain.

Mr Trump said he was “not afraid of boots on the ground” and mooted a possibility of a “much bigger” second wave of strikes if necessary.

He also said the United States will “run” Venezuela until a political transition occurs.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado insists Mr Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, whom the opposition says won elections in July 2024 in which Mr Maduro claimed victory, “must immediately assume his constitutional mandate” as president.

Mr Trump appeared to scotch any expectation that Ms Machado herself might emerge as Venezuela’s new leader. She does not have “support or respect” there, he said.

He indicated he could instead work with Mr Maduro’s deputy, Ms Delcy Rodriguez, saying “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again”.

Neighbouring Colombia was reinforcing its border with Venezuela, using tanks and armed soldiers who normally fight guerrillas to secure the frontier.

Colombian security forces were deployed at the main border crossings on the orders of leftist President Gustavo Petro, who has clashed with Mr Trump over his months-long military build-up in the region.

Mr Petro’s government has warned of a potential humanitarian crisis with migrants pouring over the border from Venezuela.

However, on the Simon Bolivar bridge in Villa del Rosaria, the main crossing point, the number of people walking across on Jan 3 was far below normal. AFP