Did the United States attack? Is Maduro fleeing? No, but in Venezuela, rumors are rife

CARACAS, Venezuela — Even in Venezuela, a country hit by years of economic, social and political unrest, Christmas time is an opportunity to put aside your troubles, spend time with family, enjoy a little holiday cheer – if you can escape the ever-present uncertainty and rumors that mark life here.

One day, social media will be ablaze with news that President Nicolas Maduro has fled to Brazil. Or in Türkiye. Or that he stopped in Türkiye on his way to Qatar. Or that the American invasion had begun. None of this (so far) is true.

Social media fuels the rumor mill daily, in part because access to independent information is severely restricted.

“We hear so much on social media, but we learn little,” said Begoña Monasterio, 78, who was shopping in Caracas to buy ingredients to prepare hallacas, the country’s iconic Christmas dish. It’s a succulent mix of cornmeal, meat, olives, raisins and other goodies cooked and wrapped in banana leaves, a type of Venezuelan tamale.

“I want to surprise my eldest son, who is celebrating his birthday during the holidays,” the grandmother said.

She carried a small bag of groceries and vowed to buy “the minimum,” now the custom in a once-rich South American country that suffered a decade of hyperinflation, ravaged wages, lost savings, mass displacement and migration — the equivalent of multiple Great Depressions.

But rumors of war and peace — and all manner of other happenings, from the trivial to the momentous — are never far away, even as shoppers make their way through storefronts and well-lit malls brimming with holiday goods, much of which is beyond most families’ budgets.

Much of the current chatter cloud hangs over María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition activist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She lives “in hiding” in the capital, although the government’s omnipresent security apparatus likely monitors her movements closely.

After days of conflicting reports about her whereabouts, Machado showed up in Oslo a day after the Nobel Prize ceremony, apparently following a secret, U.S.-aided trip by land, sea and private jet. Thousands of delighted supporters greeted her in the Norwegian capital, a publicity stunt for the opposition and a fresh round of bad views for Maduro’s embattled administration.

Although Machado did indeed arrive in Norway, Venezuelan rumors continued to produce theories about her arrival.

“We learned at one point that María Corina had left the country in the fuselage of a plane carrying migrants and that once she got out, the gringos would happen,” Monasterio said. “Then we learn that Maduro fled to Brazil. In reality, nothing turned out to be true. So I try to continue my life, enjoying my little joys [joys] as long as I can.

It’s a wise survival strategy in a country where no one can guess what will happen next. Will Maduro negotiate a deal to stay in power with President Trump? Will American forces, already assembled off the Venezuelan coast, attack? Or will the tense status quo simply continue?

“We don’t know who to believe,” said Sebastián López, 33, a civil servant who attended a pro-government political rally in the city center, one of these days organized by the ruling Socialist Party. “Many rumors come from outside the country, from Venezuelans who have left and who can write whatever they want on the Internet. … Yes, it’s true, María Corina is gone. But she will come back.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt answers questions about the U.S. military’s recent seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.

(Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A circulating report indicates that senior officials Chavistas Die-hard government supporters, named in honor of the late ex-President Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s mentor, are sending their families abroad, anticipating a U.S. strike. But no high-level defections have been reported, a stark contrast to 2019, when Trump, during his “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela in his first term, also tried to force Maduro out.

Another rumor has it that, one way or another, Washington and its allies officially recognize the opposition tandem of Edmundo González Urrutia and Machado as legitimate leaders of Venezuela.

González, a veteran diplomat who lives in exile in Spain, ran as an alternate presidential candidate for Machado in last year’s national elections. Maduro claimed victory in a vote widely denounced as fraudulent.

It’s unclear whether such a move by Washington would make much of a difference. During his first term, Trump followed a similar strategy, declaring then-opposition lawmaker Juan Guaidó president of U.S.-recognized Venezuela, thereby providing diplomatic support and funding for a shadow government. The bet failed. Guaidó has since joined the large exiled Venezuelan community in Miami.

The announcement this week of the seizure by American forces of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast only fueled the prevailing climate of unease. Maduro’s government denounced the seizure as an act of international piracy. Fears now abound that a possible US blockade could limit oil exports, which provide an economic lifeline for Venezuela, and worsen civilian hardship.

“I’ve heard all the rumors — that the invasion would happen before Christmas, that Maduro is negotiating his departure, to Doha, to Cuba, to Russia — but I don’t pay attention to them,” said Carmen Luisa Jiménez, a Maduro supporter in the capital’s working-class Artigas neighborhood. “We know that the president will never leave, that he will stay with us. … We are a nation at peace, but ready to face any attack from the United States.

Militiamen wave Venezuelan flags Wednesday in Caracas during a ceremony marking the anniversary of a 19th-century military battle.

(Anty Sertile/Anaudu/Gettyul Images)

Sonia Bravo, 40, who sells Christmas trinkets from a makeshift stall, has also heard that “zero hour” is imminent. She has no idea. A bigger concern, she said, is falling sales and the need to try to put food on the table for her family.

“People can’t afford to buy much,” Bravo said. “Right now, anything seems possible. But what we all hope for is this: that something this will happen to end this nightmare.

In the meantime, Venezuelans will continue to stockpile ingredients for hallacas, a complex dish that can take days to prepare. There is no doubt about the comforting presence of this treat in homes this Christmas, providing a sense of continuity absent from so many other facets of contemporary life in Venezuela.

Special correspondent Mogollón reported from Caracas and Times editor McDonnell from Mexico City.