Caracas streets empty after US military action removes Venezuelan leader Maduro, with residents in shock and political future unclear
CARACAS: A lingering smell of explosives hung over Venezuela’s capital on Saturday as shocked residents took stock after an early-morning US strike.
The streets were eerily quiet apart from a few hundred supporters of ousted strongman Nicolas Maduro gathered to clamour for his freedom.
“I felt the explosions lift me out of bed. In that instant I thought: ‘My God, the day has come,’ and I cried,” resident Maria Eugenia Escobar told AFP.
The strikes started around 2am local time, with dozens of detonations some at first mistook for fireworks.
Windows rattled from the shockwaves as military aircraft zoomed overhead, sending residents rushing onto terraces and balconies.
“It was horrible, we felt the planes flying over our house,” said a resident of the Coche neighbourhood near a targeted military complex.
Columns of smoke rose from several parts of the city, which was soon cloaked in a fog-like haze.
Witnesses reported bombings at La Guaira, Caracas’s airport and port, and in the cities of Maracay and Higuerote.
President Donald Trump said US special forces seized Maduro and took him to face trial in New York.
“How is it that a foreign government comes into the country and removes the president? It’s absurd!” protester Katia Briceno told AFP.
Apart from the protesters, few Venezuelans were out and about, with just an occasional car on the usually bustling streets.
Those who did venture out did so under the watchful eye of black-clad agents patrolling the centre with long guns.
Many stores were shuttered in the hours after the attack, while queues formed at others letting people in a few at a time.
Damage from the explosions was mostly limited to military installations, with vehicles riddled with bullet impacts and others smouldering.
Defence Minister General Vladimir Padrino Lopez accused US forces of attacking residential areas with missiles and rockets.
Trump said no American soldier had died in Saturday’s strikes, but the toll on the Venezuelan side is still unknown.
Trump said he was “not afraid of boots on the ground” and mooted the possibility of a “much bigger” second wave of strikes.
He also said the United States will “run” Venezuela until a political transition occurs.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado insists Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia “must immediately assume his constitutional mandate” as president.
Trump scotched any expectation that Machado herself should emerge as Venezuela’s new leader, saying she lacks “support or respect”.
He indicated he could instead work with Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, saying she is “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary”.
