The Venezuelan Military has called for the release of captured president Nicholas Maduro after he was ‘abducted’ by the US.
The South American country was plunged into chaos on Saturday as armed supporters of Maduro flooded the streets, sparked riots, shuttered transport networks and forced terrified residents to barricade themselves inside their homes.
It comes as the Venezuelan Armed Forces made a video address in which they decried the ‘abduction’ of Maduro.
Speaking on television surrounded by military officers, Defence Minister Padrino Lopez affirmed that ‘Nicolas Maduro is the genuine, authentic constitutional leader of all Venezuelans’.
He said the leadership of the Bolivarian Forces of Liberation was demanding the president’s ‘immediate release’ and condemned the ‘colonialist ambition’ of the US.
‘We urge the world to turn their eyes to what is happening against Venezuela, against its sovereignty,’ Lopez said.
‘The world needs to be on guard because if it was Venezuela yesterday, it could be anywhere tomorrow.’
Following the capture, the Supreme Court of Venezuela confirmed hardline socialist Vice President Rodriguez, 56, as Maduro’s successor just hours after US forces detained him and his wife, Cilia Flores, on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges.
The Venezuelan armed forces made a video address in which they decried the ‘abduction’ of Maduro
Maduro’s supporters pictured burning the US flag in protest of his capture by American forces
Riot police prevent protesters from reaching the US embassy during a demonstration against the United States government for the detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores
Riot police prevent protesters from reaching the US embassy during a demonstration against the United States government for the detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been seen walking down a hallway in an official building in Manhattan, almost 24 hours after he was seized by US troops, as shown above
Rodriguez, who also serves as minister for finance and oil, slammed Maduro’s arrest as ‘an atrocity that violates international law’ and called for his ‘immediate release’.
‘We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone,’ she asserted during a National Defense Council session after the US military operation.
But Trump said he preferred Rodriguez in power rather than the country’s opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, adding that Maduro’s VP was prepared to work with the US.
‘She, I think, was quite gracious, but she really doesn’t have a choice,’ Trump said of Rodriguez during a news conference in which he said the US would ‘run’ the country.
‘She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple.’
Gun-toting loyalists of the former strongman surged through cities including Caracas and Valencia, demanding his return after an overnight US military operation led to his arrest.
Ordinary citizens described scenes of fear, shortages and total paralysis as the country teetered on the brink of renewed unrest.
‘The nightmare isn’t over yet. The figurehead is gone. But his supporters are still here,’ a 70-year-old man living in Valencia told The New York Post, speaking anonymously out of fear of reprisal.
The resident said Venezuelan media had gone largely silent, leaving people scrambling for scraps of information as armed groups roamed the streets.
In Valencia, he said, the roads were ‘absolutely dead’ apart from Maduro loyalists, with residents only venturing out briefly to queue for dwindling food supplies.
‘People are shopping as if the world were ending tomorrow. There is still fear because it’s a military dictatorship that acts very harshly against any opposition,’ he said.
‘There are still armed groups roaming the cities; we are all worried they will come to steal food, supplies, and intimidate us.’
In Caracas, scenes were even more dramatic. Supporters known as Chavistas – followers of Maduro’s late mentor Hugo Chávez – were seen storming through areas reduced to rubble by overnight airstrikes.
‘We want Maduro!’ protesters shouted as smoke rose from bombed-out buildings in the capital.
Gas stations across the city were shut down, while metro services and buses were suspended.
Most supermarkets closed their doors, leaving long lines snaking around the few that remained open.
According to Spanish news agency EFE, one store was allowing only a single customer inside at a time to prevent a stampede.
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has been announced as the interim leader of Venezuela
Dramatic aerial images showed entire buildings obliterated, with scorched land and plumes of smoke hanging over the city.
Join the debate
How should Venezuela rebuild trust and stability with US forces now in control and chaos in the streets?
‘I’m afraid there will be social unrest and we’ll go back to how things were before, with shortages. When I was young I could stand in line (to buy food), I can’t anymore,’ an elderly resident from the outskirts of Caracas told EFE.
Another woman said she desperately wanted to stock up on food but simply could not afford to.
The unrest followed a large-scale US strike on Caracas, which targeted Fuerte Tiuna – Venezuela’s largest military complex – as part of an operation to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
An unnamed senior Venezuelan official told the New York Times that at least 40 people were believed to have been killed in the strikes, including both military personnel and civilians.
Maduro’s arrest came amid accusations from Trump that Venezuela had been flooding the United States with drugs and gang members.
Trump alleged that Maduro was the leader of the Cartel de los Soles drug trafficking operation.
The US President said on Saturday that he had not briefed Congress ahead of the raid, claiming that doing so would have risked leaks that could have allowed Maduro to evade capture.
Both Maduro and Flores are now being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a notorious jail known for its squalid conditions and for housing high-profile inmates including Luigi Mangione and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Trump said the United States would govern Venezuela indefinitely following the arrest, dismissing the idea of opposition figure Maria Corina Machado taking control and claiming she ‘does not have the support.’
He offered few details on how Washington would administer a country of 30 million people, but suggested Venezuela’s vast oil reserves would be used to fund its recovery.
Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and widely tipped as a future leader, has previously backed Trump’s threats to remove Maduro and remains hugely popular among voters – though she was not mentioned by Trump in his remarks on Saturday.
As armed supporters continue to roam the streets and food supplies dwindle, many Venezuelans fear the country is once again sliding into a dark and uncertain chapter, even with Maduro now behind bars.
