On Monday night the sound of shooting at Miraflores Palace set off alarm bells once again across the capital.
Miraflores, located in the heart of downtown Caracas, the country’s capital, is the main office building of the Venezuelan government. It has not been hit by bombings since 1992, when Hugo Chávez attempted a coup and began the political career that led him to the presidency in 1999.
With Monday night’s shooting, the average Venezuelan thought that US forces were back. They weren’t – but media censorship and disinformation means these kinds of rumours are circulating on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.
There was also talk of an alleged coup d’état led by Diosdado Cabello, considered the regime’s second in command. This, too, was false.
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An audio recording of a national guard officer, shared on social media, made it clear that it was a mistake by officials and armed groups who allegedly fired on drones flying over Miraflores Palace. The drones did not belong to US forces.
Rumours and uncertainty are everywhere since the dramatic events of last weekend. At 1.50am on Saturday, blasts rang out across the capital. The surprise operation, carried out by US units from ships off the Venezuelan coast, disabled airports and military zones in Caracas and ended with the extraction of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to the United States. Operation Absolute Resolve was Donald Trump’s first concrete action on Venezuelan soil.
Hours after the US president confirmed the abduction of Maduro, voices from the Venezuelan government reappeared to denounce foreign aggression.
Despite Maduro’s departure, the command structure remains in power, with no apparent change in its dynamics of social coercion.
On Monday, Delcy Rodríguez – Maduro’s vice-president – was sworn in as the first woman to become interim president of Venezuela.
[ Why Trump has refused to back Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady’Opens in new window ]
According to Trump’s announcements, she will co-operate with US authorities. She, we are told, will lead the country toward a transition, but no details of this process are available.
So far, there has been no announcement of an electoral plan.
While Trump promises to protect the wellbeing of the population, armed groups remain active in the country. Citizens, yearning for change, have been unable to rejoice at the end of Maduro’s dictatorship.
Although he is no longer in the country and was brought before a New York court on drug trafficking charges, the power structure behind, above, and below him remains intact.
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A decree declaring a state of external “commotion” – or emergency – which establishes prison sentences for those who promote and support an invasion of Venezuela, was published earlier this week by the Venezuelan authorities.
It made it clear that the topic could not be discussed and that messages, pictures and social media postings should be deleted from cell phones before going out in public to avoid being detained by regime officials or at the irregular checkpoints manned by armed groups.
Venezuela’s transition, for now, remains undefined and uncertain. The regime endures, with or without the man who once embodied it.
