Militia men hunting traitors and families risking kidnap if they leave the house… if Trump thought abducting Maduro would make him a hero in oil-rich Venezuela, he should think again, writes ANDY JEHRING

Heavily armed militiamen roam the deserted streets of the Venezuelan capital in packs on motorcycles, hunting traitors.

Citizens leave their homes only when they have no other choice. Each time they do so, they risk abduction, torture and death in El Helicide, the regime’s brutal prison that looms menacingly over the city.

Those who dare to go out hold their breath at every opportunity, praying that another checkpoint will not appear where a single ‘anti-government’ message on their phones will be enough for them to ‘disappear’.

Meanwhile, the national guards take off their uniforms, mix with civilians and listen to the collaborators.

A week after the dramatic capture of dictator Nicolas Maduro from his heavily guarded compound by US special forces, shock and horror have not given way to a bright new dawn.

Instead, an insidious paranoia grips Caracas. It has everyone and everything, spreads across the country and flows over its borders into border towns where secret police ‘mark, detect and follow’ foreign press members back to their hotels.

It also haunts the Presidential Palace of Miraflores. Within hours of the raid, interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, desperate to bolster his reign, invoked constitutional rights usually reserved for natural disasters.

He quickly mobilized the full power of his newly inherited all-powerful, militarized state to ‘search for and capture any person encouraging or supporting armed aggression by the United States.’

Those who dare to go out hold their breath at every opportunity, praying that another checkpoint will not appear

However, he is also suspected of collaborating with ‘gringos’ to betray Maduro. Why else would Donald Trump endorse his leadership?

Around Ms. Rodiquez, ruthless rival factions within the regime carefully size each other up, each controlling forces that could unleash untold chaos.

United only by their lust for power, they are now kept in check only by the threat of another Delta Force attack from the skies.

But if that risk disappears — with Mr. Trump’s attention diverted — these lands filled with narcotics gangs and private armies risk deteriorating into bloody conflict.

An estimated six million firearms are in circulation, and there is little to stop the bloodshed spilling into Colombia along Venezuela’s porous western border, where a deadly guerrilla war is already raging.

Meanwhile, with each day that Ms. Rodriguez remains in power, people fear that the euphoria over Maduro’s ouster is a mirage, an ingenious sleight of hand by Washington to sell its democratic ambitions in exchange for the country’s vast oil reserves.

Of course, Venezuelans are well accustomed to living in one of the most militarized and surveilled states in the world.

They are accustomed to the guns, tanks and missiles that strengthen the feared and hated Bolivarian regime launched by ‘El Comandante’ Hugo Chavez in 2002 and protected by his chosen successor, Maduro, upon his death in 2013.

Colombian soldiers were photographed patrolling near the Venezuelan border in Cucuta this week

A military guard at the La Parada border crossing in Cucuta, Colombia, monitors the flow of civilian traffic crossing the bridge from Venezuela

But at 1.50am last Saturday, the greatest humiliation imaginable befell the Marxist tyrants who once ruled this vibrant and beautiful country on the Caribbean coast. ‘The gringos have arrived and it looks like the only person who saw them come in was the full moon,’ says a journalist in Caracas, who cannot be named for fear of reprisals, summing up the mood on the street.

‘No radar worked, no warning was given. They came, they bombed, they landed, they took Nicolas and [wife] The lashes came away and left with barely a scratch. Citizens wonder: How was this possible?’

My source says there are only two possibilities.

‘Option one: The Venezuelan government was bluffing the entire time and the regime was completely unprepared for any attack,’ the journalist told me. ‘Or option two: betrayals, negotiations, agreements.’

William Rodriguez, whose socialist party PODEMOS is an ally of the ruling administration, adds: ‘There must have been an informant and therefore a betrayal. There must be an explanation as to why the armed forces were taken by surprise.’

American Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted it was part of a carefully written plan.

First, America will work with Ms. Rodriguez to stabilize Venezuela by tightening its grip on the country’s oil before allowing Western firms access to a renewed market.

Venezuela will then transition to a more representative democratic government, and exiled charismatic leader Maria Corina Machado will return for elections.

The Trump administration has placed a £37 million bounty on Maduro’s head, indicted him on drug trafficking charges and made it clear that the same fate as Maduro suffered if Ms. Rodriguez does not help restore order awaits him.

But political analyst Benigno Alarcón in Caracas warned that the plan appeared to be an ‘unprecedented experiment’ emerging from the wounds of America’s failures in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.

‘They are trying to ensure that the outgoing regime’s own actors dismantle the system that sustains them; ‘this is a high-risk maneuver that seeks stability through complete control of resources’.

It’s definitely an unusual situation. Political consultant Edward Rodríguez says Washington has put all its eggs in Ms. Rodriquez’s basket.

‘He holds the keys to a ruined economy and, most importantly, knows every crevice of the Chavista apparatus: its loyalties, its fears and its networks,’ he adds.

‘Trump doesn’t need an idealist; He needs someone who can press a button and make the machine (or what’s left of it) obey.

‘Is it a risky bet? No doubt. But this comes with a cruel insurance policy: Comply or the situation will be worse for you than for Maduro. ‘This is the crudest pedagogy of the government.’

Caracas residents, helpless to see how the situation will turn out, say that the feeling they have been feeling since last Saturday is ‘complete insomnia’. A man whose home was hit in a deafening US raid said his building was ‘shaking from side to side’ when they woke up.

‘Everything has slowed down,’ they added. ‘As the curtains moved the room lit up with an explosion; It was red, war red, blood red. There was a fire outside. ‘It’s happening. I thought, ‘This is really happening.’

Maduro is seen in handcuffs, escorted by armed US federal agents, heading to court on January 5 after landing at a helipad in Manhattan.

But instead of the removal of the regime that Venezuelans dream of, the Americans left as quickly as they arrived, while the tyrants who ruled them remained intact, Maduro aside.

Worryingly, Ms. Rodriguez is certainly not the only autocrat in town. Speaking about the US plan, Caracas-based political scientist Pablo Andrés Quintero says, ‘We need to see to what extent the radical sections of Chavismo will allow this.’

And there are already warning signs. A few hours after Ms. Rodriquez was sworn in on Monday, hard-line interior minister Diosdado Cabello slung his rifle over his shoulder and began walking the streets of Caracas.

Surrounded by armed members of the ‘Colectivos’, the fearsome paramilitary force of 7,000 heavily armed men who control the streets of Venezuela, Cabello raised her fist in the air and chanted slogans against the ‘traitors’.

His cooperation is crucial to Ms. Rodriquez’s survival. Cabello, a former army captain, was a close ally of Chavez. According to some hardliners, it should have been him, not Maduro, who took over in 2013, and there is no doubt that he would have wanted to seize the reins of power if given the chance.

The Trump administration has put a £37 million bounty on her head, indicted her on drug trafficking charges and made clear that if Ms. Rodriguez does not help restore order, she will suffer the same fate as Maduro.

For now, Cabello is only interested in complying. However, this will change quickly if he feels isolated. ‘While Delcy Rodríguez is the supreme commander of the armed forces, Mr. Cabello can use his Colectivos and paramilitary groups to create chaos,’ says Venezuelan journalist Hernán Lugo.

‘It could destabilize the country, start riots, and eventually ensure that no one can govern the country.’

Pictured: People crossing the Colombian border from Venezuela. A week after the dramatic capture of dictator Nicolas Maduro from his heavily guarded compound by US special forces, shock and dismay have given way to a bright new dawn

Today, Colectivos under Cabello controls more than a quarter of a million streets across Venezuela. They fuel anti-American sentiment by filling the streets with banners that read: ‘Hands off the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Yankee!’

‘Collectives are in survival mode right now because they are completely dependent on the government,’ Mr. Lugo says.

‘If the regime falls, they will too.’ Another important name is defense minister Padrino Lopez, a close ally of Chavez.

He is the de facto head of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela (123,000 active personnel and 8,000 reserves).

They are supported by the Bolivarian Militia, which has integrated some 300,000 civilian volunteers into the army.

While Ms. Rodriguez is seen as a pragmatist willing to swallow American imperialism as long as it clings to power, Lopez and the military forces are less willing.

They have long exploited the oil and drug markets and will surely calculate that Mr Trump is desperate to avoid getting bogged down in a mountainous, forest-covered country twice the size of Iraq.

Any of these groups can move at any time.

A simple calculation alarms Mr. Lugo. While Venezuelans overwhelmingly voted for the opposition in last year’s stolen presidential election, it was only hard-line elements of the regime who had weapons.

‘They are preparing themselves, waiting for the war,’ he says. ‘Not only against the opposition, but against any external power.’

If they do this, the touch paper in the area will light up.

Ivan Lozada, commander of the feared Colombian far-left guerrilla group FARC, has called for rebel commanders in Colombia and Latin America to rally in response to the ‘threat of intervention from the US’.

Colombia moved 30,000 soldiers to its border. Meanwhile, fervent, paranoid groups in Caracas are weighing their options.

‘These Collectivos and commanders are just waiting,’ says Mr. Lugo. ‘They created all these structures. For them, if there is a fight, they will be happy.’

Trump stunned the world with his surgical intervention; But what comes next may be much more challenging.