Tense calm grips Venezuela a day after US captures President Maduro

Venezuela remained in a state of uneasy calm on Sunday, a day after President Nicolás Maduro was overthrown and captured in a US military operation. Caracas appeared unusually subdued with little traffic on the streets and most convenience stores, petrol stations and other businesses shut.

On Saturday, anxious residents had formed long queues at shops and fuel stations, rushing to stock up on supplies amid fears of unrest. Normally busy roads used by runners and cyclists were largely deserted, while armed civilians and members of the military stood guard at the presidential palace.

Beyond the capital, in La Guira state, families whose homes were damaged by explosions during the operation that led to the capture of Maduro and his wife were still clearing rubble. Some buildings suffered severe structural damage, with walls blown open.

After the seismic shift in Venezuela and promises by President Donald Trump that the United States would “run” Venezuela with the help of Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, no one in the country seemed to know where things stood or what lay ahead.

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In a low-income neighborhood in eastern Caracas, construction worker Daniel Medalla sat on the steps outside a Catholic church and told a few parishioners that again there would be no morning Mass.

Medalla theorized the streets remained mostly empty not because people are worried about another strike but because they are fearful of government repression if they dare celebrate, coming after a fierce government crackdown during last year’s fraught elections.

“We were longing for it,” Medalla, 66, said of Maduro’s exit.

With inputs from agencies