On the ground, however, few things are certain, including basic questions of daily security, whether Venezuela\u2019s autocratic government will stay in place, the fate of political prisoners, who will ultimately revitalize its vast and decrepit oil industry<\/a>, and whether the once-rich country will ever prosper again. <\/p>\n On Friday afternoon at an eastern Caracas social club \u2014 one of many private organizations resembling small country clubs \u2014 three mothers watched their children play, and discussed whether they should send them to school on Monday when they are due to reopen after the Christmas break. <\/p>\n Two of them said they would and a third that she didn\u2019t dare. The three as well as other residents NBC News spoke with asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals.<\/p>\n As darkness fell, one of them, a 34-year-old publicist, asked if they should get something to eat with the children. <\/p>\n Her friend demurred. <\/p>\n \u201cI live on the other side of the city, I better get going because the situation isn\u2019t safe enough to be out so late,\u201d the 38-year-old lawyer said.<\/p>\n Throughout Caracas, state security forces and colectivos \u2014 groups of armed civilians supportive of the Venezuelan regime \u2014 roam the streets checking people\u2019s telephones for signs of anti-government sentiments and support of the United States raid<\/a> that resulted in Maduro\u2019s capture. <\/p>\n This is especially true in the working-class areas. <\/p>\n \u201cHere we see a bit of everything,\u201d said a 30-year-old motorcycle taxi driver who lives in the working-class Petare neighborhood. \u201cThere are military, police and colectivos.\u201d <\/p>\n During a Friday nighttime tour of the capital, powerful and feared Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello declared that the country was at peace because the state still \u201chas the monopoly and full control of weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHaving possession of the weapons has allowed us to maintain control, so that no group can claim responsibility for acts of violence other than those perpetrated by the United States in the early morning of January 3rd,\u201d said Cabello, who oversees police, counterintelligence forces and the colectivos. <\/p>\n On Saturday, the U.S. State Department issued an updated travel advisory<\/a> urging Americans to leave Venezuela immediately now that international flights have resumed. <\/p>\n The advisory also warned of armed militia groups setting up roadblocks and looking for evidence of U.S. citizenship or support for the United States.<\/p>\n \u2018Uninvestable\u2019<\/p>\n Once Latin America\u2019s richest country, Venezuela went into economic freefall during the last two decades. Nearly 8 million people have fled, creating one of the world\u2019s worst refugee crises. Some 90% of the population is deemed poor, while 50% live in extreme poverty. All this in a country that sits on the world\u2019s largest known oil reserves.<\/p>\n While he cited a desire to stamp out groups that control Venezuela\u2019s illicit drug trade, which have seeped into the government, Trump has also repeatedly made clear his interest in the country\u2019s oil<\/a>. On Wednesday he told The New York Times <\/a>that the U.S. could stay in charge \u201cfor years\u201d to lead the revival of the vast energy sector. <\/p>\n \u201cAmerican companies will have the opportunity to rebuild Venezuela\u2019s rotting energy infrastructure and eventually increase oil production to levels never, ever seen before,\u201d he said Friday at the opening of a meeting with the heads of some of the world\u2019s largest oil companies<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be making the decision as to which oil companies are going to go in.\u201d <\/p>\n His bid to entice oil majors to begin investing in Venezuela was met with polite skepticism by Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods, who said Venezuela was currently \u201cuninvestable.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had our assets seized there twice, and so you can imagine to re-enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cWe\u2019re confident that with this administration and President Trump, working hand in hand with the Venezuelan government, that those changes can be put in place.\u201d <\/p>\n Trump has said that he is in control in Venezuela, and his government is working well with interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro\u2019s vice president.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you know, we\u2019re getting along very well with the administration that is there right now,\u201d he told The New York Times. \u201cThey\u2019re giving us everything that we feel is necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n Despite his positive words about the regime, which is practically unchanged save Maduro\u2019s absence, in the last few days Trump has made overtures to Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner<\/a> and opposition leader who was barred from running in Venezuela\u2019s 2024 general election. A candidate who stood in her stead is widely considered to have won the vote but Maduro claimed victory. <\/p>\n After saying Machado did not have the support necessary to lead the country in the Jan. 3 raid\u2019s immediate aftermath, Trump on Thursday said he looked forward to meeting her next week<\/a> in Washington. <\/p>\n Venezuela without Maduro<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government\u2019s public stance on the U.S. remains contradictory.<\/p>\n Officials announced on Friday the start of an \u201cexploratory diplomatic process\u201d with the U.S., aimed at the \u201crestoration of diplomatic missions in both countries\u201d and to address the consequences of the \u201ckidnapping\u201d of Maduro and his wife, Cilia.<\/p>\n State media outlets broadcast programs discussing the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution, as the movement founded by Maduro\u2019s predecessor Hugo Ch\u00e1vez is called. Footage of demonstrations against the U.S. attack and demanding the liberation of Maduro and his wife run frequently.<\/p>\n The president of Venezuela\u2019s National Assembly, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, said Thursday that the government would be releasing an \u201cimportant number\u201d of political prisoners<\/a>, an announcement Trump lauded in a post Saturday on Truth Social<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cVenezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cI hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done. I HOPE THEY NEVER FORGET! If they do, it will not be good for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Danieli Hern\u00e1ndez, daughter of political prisoner N\u00e9lida S\u00e1nchez, was overjoyed that her mother could be returning home. But according to human rights organizations, fewer than 15 of the country\u2019s 800 political prisoners have been released. S\u00e1nchez wasn\u2019t one of them. <\/p>\n Now Hern\u00e1ndez lives in a state of distress.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re living one day at a time,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope her turn comes soon.\u201d<\/p>\n The Caracas night was unusually silent Friday. During the day, businesses such as supermarkets, pharmacies, bakeries and caf\u00e9s are open, at night many bars and restaurants still keep their doors closed. The businesses that do open close early, around 7 p.m., and many resident people prefer to get home before 10 p.m. <\/p>\n This situation is not unique to Caracas.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I go out I always leave my phone at home because there is still repression,\u201d says a 56-year-old who used to work for PDVSA, the country\u2019s state-owned oil and gas company, and lives in the coastal city of Puerto Cabello in Carabobo state. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have mixed feelings. We are waiting, silently, for the moment when we can celebrate,\u201d he said. \u201cHere where I live, everyone is quiet, no joy in the streets, nothing. Everyone in silence.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is by F. Brinley Bruton reporting from Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, and a Caracas-based reporter who is not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-400693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260110-venezuela-2-cc-1046p-fb0717.jpg\")
Members of the National Guard stand guard in front of a mural of Venezuela’s deposed president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, in Caracas on Saturday.Juan Barreto \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260110-venezuela-1-cc-1046p-bd04d1.jpg\")
Relatives of political prisoners light candles during a vigil in demand of the release of their loved ones outside of El Rodeo I prison in Guatire, Miranda State, east of Caracas on Friday.Ronaldo Schemidt \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n