{"id":887600,"date":"2026-01-24T22:25:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T04:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/24\/people-in-venezuela-didnt-celebrate-maduros-capture-out-of-fear-of-government-repression-construction-worker-says\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:25:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T04:25:57","slug":"people-in-venezuela-didnt-celebrate-maduros-capture-out-of-fear-of-government-repression-construction-worker-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/24\/people-in-venezuela-didnt-celebrate-maduros-capture-out-of-fear-of-government-repression-construction-worker-says\/","title":{"rendered":"People in Venezuela didn\u2019t celebrate Maduro\u2019s capture out of fear of government repression, construction worker says"},"content":{"rendered":"

An anxious quiet fell over\u00a0Venezuela<\/a>\u00a0\u2018s capital on Sunday as trepidation mixed with joy while a nation waited to see what comes next.<\/p>\n

\n

People were slow to resume routines in Caracas after\u00a0President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was deposed and captured<\/a>\u00a0in a dramatic U.S.\u00a0military operation<\/a>. Dozens of stores, restaurants and churches remained closed. Those on the streets looked shell-shocked, staring at their phones or into the distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are still shaken,\u201d said 77-year-old David Leal, who arrived to work as a parking attendant but realized he likely would not have customers. He pointed to the deserted street, a few blocks from Venezuela\u2019s presidential palace, which was guarded by armed civilians and military personnel.<\/p>\n

\u2018May God give us strength\u2019<\/h4>\n

Venezuela<\/a>\u00a0is no stranger to political tumult, but the the dead-of-night U.S. military operation early Saturday marked a new chapter with no ready script.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump initially said the U.S. would \u201crun\u201d the country until there was stability, a remark that Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u00a0seemed to walk back on Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rubio insisted in interviews that Washington will use control of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry to force policy changes, and called the government currently in place illegitimate. The country is home to the\u00a0world\u2019s largest proven crude oil reserves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see Venezuela transition to be a place completely different than what it looks like today. But obviously, we don\u2019t have the expectation that\u2019s going to happen in the next 15 hours,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino L\u00f3pez, flanked by the high military command, told Venezuelans that Maduro was still the rightful leader. Presidential duties, however, now belong to Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, whom the high court ordered to assume the role of interim president.<\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez made no public comment Sunday.<\/p>\n

Maduro\u2019s cadre of government officials demanded his release from\u00a0custody<\/a>\u00a0in New York, where his first\u00a0court appearance<\/a>\u00a0is set for Monday. State-controlled media did not air the images of him handcuffed on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n

Venezuelans instead saw them on social media, and many could not believe their eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMay God give us strength for what we are experiencing. I\u2019m sad. He is a human being,\u201d said Nely Guti\u00e9rrez, a retiree, as her eyes welled with tears. \u201cThey have him handcuffed, and if he is in the hands of the empire, no one can save him from there, only God, not even God. He will die there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guti\u00e9rrez had walked to church only to find it closed. She said she would have prayed for peace in Venezuela and for Maduro. She declined to say whether she ever voted for him but said, \u201cThe word of God says love your enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fear of celebrating<\/h4>\n

In the U.S. and some Latin American countries,\u00a0Maduro\u2019s ouster was celebrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Venezuela, the scene was different, with some supporters burning U.S. flags and holding signs reading \u201cGringo go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others muted any anti-Maduro feelings for now. Construction worker Daniel Medalla said people did not dare celebrate out of fear of government repression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were longing for it,\u201d Medalla, 66, said of Maduro\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

Memories remain fresh of the\u00a0government crackdown<\/a>\u00a0following the 2024 presidential election, which Maduro claimed to have won despite credible evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Protests left 28 people dead, 220 injured and at least 2,000 detained, according to official figures.<\/p>\n

The presence of police and military personnel across Caracas on Sunday was notable for its smaller size compared with an average day. Soldiers attempted to clear an area of an air base that burned along with at least three passenger buses during the U.S. attack.<\/p>\n

Rubio in interviews said no U.S. forces were on the ground in Venezuela but didn\u2019t rule out further strikes there.<\/p>\n

Death toll from US operation still unclear<\/h4>\n

Venezuelan officials have said Saturday\u2019s operation killed civilians and military personnel. But they have not given a toll, and the government\u2019s press office has not responded to multiple requests.<\/p>\n

In the coastal state of La Guaira, families with houses damaged during the operation were cleaning up debris.<\/p>\n

Wilman Gonz\u00e1lez, left with a black eye from a blast, picked through rubble at home, surrounded by broken furniture. One part of his apartment building was almost entirely blown off, leaving walls gaping.<\/p>\n

Among those killed was Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s aunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is it, what we are left with: ruins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez spoke with anger at the wreckage but also at the compounding economic and political crises that Venezuela has endured for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are civilians. We are not with the government or anyone else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Regina Garcia Cano, Megan Janetsky, Juan Arraez, The Associated Press
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An anxious quiet fell over\u00a0Venezuela\u00a0\u2018s capital on Sunday as trepidation mixed with joy while a nation waited to see what comes next. People were slow to resume routines in Caracas after\u00a0President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was deposed and captured\u00a0in a dramatic U.S.\u00a0military operation. Dozens of stores, restaurants and churches remained closed. Those on the streets looked shell-shocked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":887601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[287,30284],"tags":[6149,6574],"class_list":{"0":"post-887600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-people","8":"category-venezuela","9":"tag-people","10":"tag-venezuela"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}