While the American fleet is in valve towards the coasts, the Venezuelans face uncertainty, fear and, for some, hope

Caracas, Venezuela – American warships are steaming towards the South Caribbean. The Trump administration denounces Nicolás Maduro, “president of the Narco” and doubles a bonus at $ 50 million. Rumors of an invasion, a coup or another form of American intervention flood social media.

For the besieged residents of Venezuela, mired in more than a decade of crisis – hyperinflation, food shortages, authoritarian domination and rigged elections – a new phase of anxiety is once again the nerves that shake the nerves. Despite this, the Venezuelans are trying to continue.

“We are trying to maintain our activities, our schedules despite uncertainty,” said Leisy Torcatt, 44, a mother of three children who heads a baseball school in a nation where a passion for sport helps repel despair.

“Our daily problems are continuing, but we cannot be paralyzed. … We continue to move forward by trying to develop our differences,” she said.

Here there is an essential meaning which is largely out of the control of people. The massive demonstrations on the Anti-Maduro Street of past years have little to dislodge, or SAPER, Maduro, and the opposition has long been deeply divided. The authorities imprisoned the dissidents and broke the coup attempts.

And now, once again, Venezuela seems to be in the Washington reticle.

“We have already seen everything,” said Mauricio Castillo, 28, journalist. “It is not that we have lost confidence in the possibility of a real change. But we are fed up. We cannot simply stop our lives, put them on hold while waiting for” something “to happen.”

People buy in the central city center of the city center.

Here in the capital, the Venezuelans are used to the improved martial ritual: more blocked routes, more troops in the streets, more barricades protecting the presidential palace of Miraflores, where Maduro launches diatribes against the potential “imperialist” invaders.

However, despite the current naval accumulation of the Caribbean, the Trump administration has given very mixed signals on Venezuela.

During Trump’s first presidency, his administration recognized a ghost opposition president, charged Maduro for accusations of drug trafficking and imposed draconian sanctions on petroleum and financial sectors. The sanctions have effectively collapsed an already fragile economy in what was once the richest nation in South America.

Economic collapse has led to an exodus of some 8 million Venezuelans, or almost a third of the population. Most of them found themselves elsewhere in South America, but hundreds of thousands reached the United States. Trump strengthened that they are not welcome, ending the protections of the Biden administration era and deportations.

A man repairs a Spider-Man costume at the popular San Jacinto market in Caracas.

During the presidential campaign – and since his return to the White House – Trump said on several occasions, without proof, that Venezuela had emptied his prisons and sent the worst delinquents to the United States

But shortly after taking office for his current mandate, Trump sent a special envoy, Richard Grenell, to meet Maduro, generating hopes for improving relations. Washington then granted Chevron, the American oil giant, a license to continue to operate in Venezuela – which houses the largest oil reserves in the globe – in a decision that provided hard money for Caracas and oil for the American market.

Then, in July, the Trump administration praised the release of 10 American citizens and permanent residents detained in Venezuela in exchange for the return of hundreds of Venezuelan nationals who had been expelled in Salvador.

In the meantime, the United States has regularly returned other deportees to Venezuela in another sign of bilateral cooperation.

“Until now, we have seen President Trump very clearly approve a policy of engagement with Venezuela,” said Geoff Ramsey, principal researcher of the Atlantic Council, a research group based in Washington. “The United States will not invade Venezuela as soon as it is.”

Janeth, 45, teacher of a community school, poses for a portrait in Caracas.

Others say that they are not so safe, despite the aversion declared by Trump to get involved in more wars – and the probable negative flame return to a large part of Latin America, where the perspective of American intervention inevitably revives memories of past invasions, land seizures and support for right dictators.

In the opinion of American officials, Maduro and drug trafficking are inextricably linked. The White House label Maduro at the head of the “Cartel des Suns”, a contraband network would have been linked to the Government and the Venezuelans army. And Trump would have ordered the Pentagon to plan a possible military action against the Latin American cartels. (Maduro denies drug charges, rejecting them as an American disinformation campaign.)

The massive extent of American naval employment seems to reflect the point of view of the policy of hawks such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long defended a hard position against Venezuela.

The accumulation would include more than half a dozen warships, including at least one submarine and thousands of navies and sailors. The White House says it is supposed to dissuade the traffic of maritime narcotics, not the overthrow of Maduro.

“It’s a lot of effort to do something that is performance, right?” said Laura Cristina Dib, who directs Venezuelan research at the Washington office on Latin America, a research group.

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1 and 1 “Faith in our people” says a display panel with the face of President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. 2 A patriotic backpack with the colors and stars of the Venezuelan flag.

In response, Maduro strengthened the militia inscriptions, deployed 15,000 soldiers on the border with Colombia and insisted that there is “no means” that American forces could enter Venezuela. He laughs at the statement of the United States according to which naval accumulation is an anti-countermass effort, noting-correctly-that most of the cocaine is produced in neighboring Colombia and enters the United States via Mexico.

“It is ridiculous to say that they are fighting on drug trafficking with nuclear submarines,” Samuel Moncada, Ambassador of Venezuela, to journalists said on Thursday.

According to most independent accounts, Maduro probably lost last year’s elections – monitors challenged his claimed victory – but his many donors demonstrate high -level support given the American saber.

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1 and 1 People walk in front of a politically loaded wall painting near Bolivar Square. The Iranian forest ship represented on the right side of the mural arrived in Venezuela during fuel shortages in 2020. 2 The former military reservoir is a midfielder.

The government has orchestrated public inscriptions of militia members demonstrating their eagerness to fight for the socialist heritage of the late Hugo Chávez, the mentor and predecessor of Maduro in the palace of Miraflores.

“None of us will be afraid when defending our country against foreign aggression,” said Orlando López, 54, grandfather and military proud. “It is not justified that the president of another country wants to impose his will.”

He rejected the notion of an omnipresent feeling of nervousness.

“The city’s climate is that of tranquility, peace,” said López, who is part of a civil militia of more than $ 1 million who support Maduro.

A recent Sunday at the Roman Catholic Church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, in the Baruta district of the capital, Father Leonardo Marius urged the parishioners to ignore the drum of the war beating the airwaves and the Internet. The Venezuelans, he said, should focus on more fundamental concerns.

“In Venezuela, half a million children are not enough to eat – no one is talking about it,” Marius told the parishioners in his sermon. “But we love the Hollywood stories of boats and aircraft carriers, the show. …” They come! They land! “Please! Hollywood did a lot of damage.

A skating team for girls skates in Los Próceres near the Fuerte Tiuna military base in Caracas.

Throughout the city, in a high -end sports club, Javier Martín, a businessman, said that noise was difficult to ignore.

“The atmosphere across the country, but especially here in Caracas, is that of fear, distress, uncertainty,” said Martín. “You see hooded officials in the streets and that makes you feel fear, as if you were in a war.”

The Venezuelans, he explained, live a kind of “surreal” existence, fighting to maintain their lives and their families while always anticipating improvements and changes that never seem to come.

“We live stuck every day,” he said. “It’s not lasting.”

What is the next step?

“Everyone expects something to happen,” said Martín. “I just hope it’s positive.”

The special Mugollón correspondent reported in Caracas and the staff editor of Times McDonnell in Mexico City.