Post #4776

Venezuela: Heart of Darkness At the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, which spans the Táchira River, foot and vehicle traffic flowed as normal through the main border crossing between Venezuela and Colombia. But a day after the extraordinary US capture and rendition of Venezuela’s leader, Maduro, there was an air of uncertainty over what comes next. On the Venezuelan side of the bridge, a member of the Bolivarian national guard said that his instructions from the military top brass had not changed. “It’s a bit tense but we have been given no new orders,” he said. Trump said on Saturday that the US would now “run” the country for an indeterminate period of transition, but such claims seemed not to have filtered down to this corner of the country, 640km from Caracas. “Whoever governs us has to be a Venezuelan,” said the man. In a sign that Venezuelan authorities are also on edge, his commanding officer angrily cut short the conversation and tore a page from a reporter’s notebook before suggesting that she return to the Colombian side. Over the past 15 years, more than 2 million Venezuelans have fled hunger, political repression and economic crisis at home to seek refuge in the neighbouring country, and the prospect of further destabilisation has worried Colombian leaders. Petro’s criticism of the US campaign against Venezuela, and its targeting of small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, has infuriated Trump who on Saturday said that the Colombian leader should “watch his ass”. On Sunday, Colombia’s defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said at a security meeting that the president’s security detail had been reinforced. The 6,000-strong guerrilla army, one of Latin America’s most heavily armed groups, straddles the border and has a strong presence inside Venezuela where it is active in eight of the country’s 24 states, expanding its finances, territorial control and political influence. While nominally a leftwing insurgency, analysts describe its presence in Venezuela as more a paramilitary force that acts in support of the Maduro government. At the security meeting, Sánchez said contingency plans had been put in place in case of a humanitarian emergency. Reporting inside Venezuela is severely restricted. Authorities have declined visas for foreign journalists to enter the country, and at least 21 Venezuelan reporters were arrested in the first 11 months of 2025 and face charges of treason or terrorism for their work, according to the National Association of Journalists. Nubiola Fanco, 60, who crossed into Colombia early on Sunday morning to restock her general store said there was a tense calm on the Venezuelan side. “People cleaned out the whole store yesterday,” after Maduro’s arrest, she said as she piled her shopping cart high with cans of tuna, packs of beans and lentils, cat food and cleaning supplies. “No one knows what could happen next.” It’s all so distressing,” said Gabriel Vásquez, a 29-year-old video-maker, recalling how he had been woken by the sound of a “gigantic” explosion at about 2am on Saturday and how his community in central Caracas was plunged into darkness as aircraft circled overhead. “I thought that any time my house could get bombed too,” said Vásquez, whose neighbourhood was still in the dark on Sunday. “We have no water, no electricity, no phone reception – nothing,” he complained. Julio Pimentel, a 33-year-old designer, said his electricity and water supplies had also been cut but admitted he had been surprised by the number of people out on the streets “considering the situation we’re in”. “Supermarkets and pharmacies are very, very crowded,” Pimentel said. Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, ordered 30,000 troops to its border with Venezuela to guard against possible turmoil. The Colombo-Venezuelan rebel army, the National Liberation Army, condemned what it called Trump’s “imperial” onslaught, vowing to “confront” the attack on Venezuelan sovereignty. #venezuela#products#caracas#arrest 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸