‘Everything is silent’: Caracas on edge in aftermath of US blitz | Venezuela

A.Shaken from their beds just before 2 a.m. Saturday morning, many Caracas residents searched for an innocent explanation for the noise disrupting their sleep: an exploding air conditioning unit, a tropical storm, an earthquake. Or maybe a festive pyrotechnic show in Venezuela’s mountain-surrounded capital.

“I thought it might be fireworks,” Carlos Hurtado, a resident of the 23 de Enero public housing on the city’s west side, recalled of the moment he was awakened by a mysterious series of thuds and explosions.

But as clouds of smoke rose above the nation’s largest city, air raid sirens blared and WhatsApp groups began to light up with flickering cellphone videos of the tangerine-coloured explosions, it became clear that the pre-dawn explosions were not the result of a natural disaster or a faulty device.

After five months of intensifying US military pressure, Venezuela was under attack, with missiles raining down on army bases, airports and key infrastructure in the capital and surrounding region.

“They’re bombing La Carlota and Fuerte Tiuna,” a resident of a middle-class area called Sebucán warned his neighbors in a six-second voice message, referring to two of the city’s most important military installations. La Carlota is an air base in the heart of Caracas; Fuerte Tiuna is a heavily fortified military complex long believed to be the home of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The video footage, shot by a group of hikers said to be camping in the mountains overlooking Caracas, was reminiscent of the “shock and awe” air campaign against Baghdad in March 2003.

“You couldn’t see the planes, but you could hear them soaring in the sky,” said Ligia Uribe de Torres, 74, whose apartment overlooks La Carlota’s runway.

Ricardo Sans, a 69-year-old engineer who lives in the mountains around Caracas, recalled jumping out of bed and throwing himself on the floor after hearing a loud “vibration” around 2 a.m.

Looking out his window, Sans saw in the darkness four to six helicopters flying directly over his house, smoke billowing from a defensive position near one of Caracas’ most symbolic addresses: the Cuartel de La Montaña barracks, where the remains of Maduro’s mentor Hugo Chavez were displayed after his death in 2013.

Unlike the other teary-eyed residents, Sans had no doubts about what he had witnessed and began calling his friends and relatives. “I immediately thought this was what most of Venezuela had been waiting for, and indeed it was,” he said.

The exact details of the US airstrike on Venezuela, later confirmed by both Donald Trump and Venezuelan officials, remain unclear.

But as the day dawned in Caracas, Caracas residents and the world received even more sensational news. Trump announced that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were “captured” during the raid and flown to a naval warship in the Caribbean Sea.

“They were eliminated in a matter of seconds. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Trump told Fox News.

US attorney Pam Bondi accused the couple of being “international drug traffickers” and said on social media: “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice in American courts on American soil.”

Citing US officials, CBS News reported that Maduro was captured by members of Delta Force, the elite army unit responsible for the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. There was speculation that the raid was carried out with the help of an elite army helicopter unit called the Night Stalkers, whose pilots were involved in the 2011 killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Maduro’s allies, including defense minister Gen. Vladimir Padrino López and interior minister Diosdado Cabello, condemned the U.S. “invasion” and called on citizens to take up arms against foreign aggressors. “We strongly reject this murderous, despicable and fascist Yankee imperialist attack on our homeland,” Caracas mayor Carmen Meléndez told state television, calling on citizens to rally around Venezuela’s “valiant… great helmsman.”

Speaking to the same channel by phone, vice president Delcy Rodríguez demanded immediate evidence from the White House that Maduro and Flores are alive. Although Reuters reported that Rodríguez was in Moscow, he also appealed to citizens to resist.

Aside from the squawks of Caracas’ famous yellow and blue “guacamaya” parrots, many city streets were eerily quiet Saturday morning as people braced for an uncertain future. “It seems like a pandemic morning right now… You can’t even hear a single car,” one resident said. “It’s like waking up in the middle of lockdown.”

Trump officials celebrated the beginning of a so-called new era for the oil-rich country after Maduro’s 12-year grip on power was seemingly broken, 18 months after he was accused of stealing the 2024 election. “A new dawn for Venezuela! The oppressor is gone,” tweeted Christopher Landau, US deputy secretary of state.

But many in Caracas doubted that democratic change was imminent. There was no sign yet that Edmundo González, the apparent winner of the 2024 elections, might return from exile along with his main ally, Nobel peace laureate María Corina Machado. Machado said in a statement that he was preparing to come to power and that Venezuela was entering “decisive hours.”

Crisis Group’s Caracas-based analyst Phil Gunson said: “From what I’ve seen so far, this appears to be an operation to remove Maduro from power – but it’s not a regime change. The regime is still in power.”

Gunson said he believes it’s possible the U.S. strike could precipitate an armed uprising against what’s left of Maduro’s so-called leftist regime. But it seemed more likely that another hard-liner from Maduro’s political movement would replace him, plunging the country deeper into dictatorship.

“Venezuelans may ironically be worse off after Maduro’s departure. It’s still very early days… but this is definitely not a moment to hang bunting and open champagne,” Gunson said. “This is just the beginning.”

Hurtado said that after the attack, pro-regime paramilitary gang members known as “colectivos” took to the streets of his neighborhood with commando equipment.

“We don’t know if they’ll let us go out and buy food or if there’ll be free movement. Normally there’s always a party this time of year but right now there’s no one – [it’s] “Everything is silent, as if there was a power outage.”