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People lost their sleep due to the blasts which started before dawn on Saturday.
First, Caracas was shaken by a loud explosion around 2.30 a.m. and then residents described it as a kind of blast wave. After this a series of more powerful explosions started.
“You can see the flames and the reflection of the smoke,” said Daniela, a resident who lives just outside the Venezuelan capital, after the dramatic early-morning aerial bombardment.
The attacks appear to have targeted military installations and strategic infrastructure such as telephone towers, said Daniela, who did not want her full name published.
Videos shared on social media showed several helicopters flying high over the city as explosions lit up the horizon and sent plumes of smoke rising into the sky. Pictures showed terrified residents fleeing areas around the blasts and armed government supporters on the streets of the capital.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said the US had “desecrated our sacred ground” with its attacks on Fuerte Tiuna, a military installation, as well as in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, which followed months of US military buildup in the region.
He said, the Americans have attacked civilian areas with missiles and rockets from combat helicopters, for which we are collecting information about the injured and dead.
According to residents, the blasts lasted for about an hour. Then there was an eerie silence.
and then Announcement US President Donald Trump said on his Truth social platform that Venezuelan authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro was captured along with his wife and deported from the country.
For the first time since the 1989 invasion of Panama, the United States appeared to have removed a Latin American leader from office.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said Maduro’s whereabouts were not known and demanded that Trump provide “proof of life”.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello called on people to come forward to defend Venezuela’s national sovereignty.
He said, “Let all of us who can, take to the streets. We are going to organize our people.” “These rats attacked and they will regret it for the rest of their lives.”
Government-aligned paramilitaries known as colectivos They have already been dispatched in recent weeks to poorer neighborhoods of Caracas to quell dissent in former government strongholds.
Immediately after the first explosion on Saturday morning, colectivos The 23rd were observed in the working-class neighborhoods of De Anero and Petare. On 23 de Enero, they took control of the area and prevented residents from taking to the streets, despite Cabello’s calls.
“I was riding my motorcycle when these armed men stopped me, searched my luggage and my cell phone and forced me to return home,” one man told the Financial Times. “They were guarding the entire neighborhood.”
In Petare, Elio Serrano – governor of Miranda state, which includes part of Caracas – walked the streets with about 30 people. collective Members and government supporters told state television cameras that the US should “hand back” Maduro.
Some people in Caracas reported internet failures, while images showed some streets without power. “We don’t know what’s happening, we just have to wait and see,” said Francisco, a resident.
“After Cabello’s comments, people are mostly staying at home,” said a man who lives in southeast Caracas. “There is a lot of fear.”
In a seaside town outside Caracas, residents said the streets were filled with cars honking horns and New Year’s-style celebrations at 4 a.m. after the strike.
But in an indication of how confused the situation remains, he said that on the seaside promenade there were also Chavista supporters wearing red shirts and berets, looking unconcerned.
“I stayed up all night talking to people in Caracas on the phone,” said Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, managing partner of Aurora Macro Strategies, a New York-based global risk consultancy. He said there was “perhaps nervous excitement” but also widespread fear.
Maduro has ruled the oil-rich Caribbean nation since 2013, when he took power following the death of Hugo Chavez, the architect of the socialist “Bolivarian Revolution.”
By 10am, queues began forming at some supermarkets in the capital as locals stocked up for the uncertain days ahead.
Daniela said: “A lot of people might be saying ‘finally – this is the beginning of the end’. But I don’t know.
“We’ve been in this mess for 25 years. It’s been so many years that nothing has happened.”
One local businessman was cautiously optimistic. “It is still very early but you can sense the hope,” he said. “People are celebrating inside their homes, considering we just went through a bombing.”
