While many welcomed the fall of Nicolas Maduro – even if they disagreed with the way it came about – Venezuelans in the country’s capital aren’t expecting quick or radical change.
That is the view of Caracas-based journalist Rosali Hernandez, who told Sky News Maduro’s regime represented a “system with many hands, like an octopus”.
The reaction from within Venezuela is different from the celebrations seen elsewhere in the world.
“Nobody is celebrating, everyone feels so afraid about what is going to happen next”, Hernandez said.
She added Venezuelans are “living like they’re in a cave”, unable to get reliable information after three TV channels were shut down.
When people in the country switch on their TV, their only option is Corporacion Venezolana de Television – a state-run television station – where they can watch a stream of speeches by Maduro, she adds.
As well as having their news cut off, Hernandez said residents of certain areas of Caracas have suffered power, internet and water outages since the US military operation on Saturday.
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She has heard reports that some substations exploded and that an important antenna on Caracas’s El Volcan hill was damaged in the strikes.
On the streets of the capital, 24 hours after the US operation, most places remained closed.
Hernandez explained how “no one is taking control of the situation. So, Venezuelans are going out to see what they can do and what they can buy”.
That has led to long queues forming at the few marketplaces, pharmacies and petrol stations that are open.
She said people were trying to buy food and medicine now because they know from past experiences that uncertainty and instability tend to linger.
Rather than being a militarised city, Caracas is reportedly “kind of empty” with a lack of Venezuelan Guard or military on the streets, said Hernandez.
Paramilitary groups and irregular armed gangs, known as colectivos, are dispersed in and around the capital.
These groups create “a dangerous situation because the colectivos operate outside of the official forces, so situations can escalate quickly”.
In the past, colectivos have been deployed to break up protests and crack down on dissent and political rivals.
Hernandez said that where one Caracas neighbourhood ends and another starts is “like a border”, due to different municipal police running their own checkpoints where their district begins.
The strikes and capture of Maduro took everyone by surprise, Hernandez said.
However, she argued that around 10 people would have needed to have been captured for any real change to take place.
Hernandez said: “Nicolas Maduro wasn’t the strongest pillar of that government network; he was the weakest, he didn’t have as much power as others.”
Instead, she points to people like Jorge Rodriguez (head of Venezuela’s National Assembly) and Diosdado Cabello Rondon (First Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela).
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She says that “Venezuelans won’t feel like they are free” while those who are accused of torture and political repression remain in the country.
In a recent interview with NBC, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke of dealing with the politicians who were left behind after Maduro’s exit, and hoped for a “holistic transition”.
Perhaps that’s why Trump appeared to dismiss opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado in a press conference yesterday – revealing he hadn’t spoken to her.
If that is the White House’s plan, then it seems that the octopus government Hernandez described could live on – even after the removal of its Nicolas Maduro arm.
