CARACAS, Venezuela — U.S. fighter jets escorted a strategic bomber near the coast one day this week, and state-controlled media showed video of Venezuelan soldiers firing into the sky. A supermarket in east Caracas filled with people raiding the shelves to lay in supplies.
The next day, the sky was quiet — and the capital returned to normal.
Caught between the threat of a U.S. attack and a government they don’t trust to provide accurate information, Venezuelans are living moment to moment, unsure of what to expect next — a disrupting, exhausting existence that’s leading some to wish that whatever is going to happen would just happen already.
“On Monday every street was empty,” said one woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of persecution. “On Wednesday, it was a normal country again. [The government of President Nicolás Maduro] are experts in playing with our emotions and downplaying any credible threat that could mean their end.”
“The uncertainty is killing me,” she added.
The Trump administration began building up naval forces off Venezuela in August and started launching strikes against boats it claims are carrying drugs to the United States in September. Maduro responded by mobilizing troops, calling on citizens to join militias to defend the country and declaring Christmas.
Initially, Venezuelans were more focused on day-to-day survival. The population of this oil-rich nation has been battered by years of economic mismanagement and political repression by the authoritarian socialist government. Inflation and unemployment are high, supplies of water, food, medicine and energy are unreliable and political persecution is widespread.
But in recent weeks, events have accelerated. The Trump administration on Monday declared the Cartel de los Soles, an alleged drug trafficking group that officials say is led by Maduro and other senior officials, a foreign terrorist organization.
On Wednesday, Dominican President Luis Abinader said he had authorized U.S. aircraft to use Las Américas International Airport in Santo Domingo and the San Isidro Air Base nearby to refuel aircraft and transport personnel and equipment in the fight against drug trafficking.
The Federal Aviation Administration last week warned airlines flying over Venezuela of a “potentially hazardous situation.” Several carriers paused scheduled flights. Maduro’s government advised them to keep flying.
“The national government, in a sovereign decision, told the airlines: If you don’t resume flights within 48 hours, don’t resume them at all,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, Maduro’s No. 2 official, told a television audience. “You can keep your planes and we’ll keep our dignity.”
Venezuela on Wednesday revoked operating rights for six major international airlines, including flag carriers Iberia of Spain, TAP Air Portugal, Avianca of Colombia and Turkish Airlines.
The woman is one of many passengers whose travel plans are now on hold.
“My kids cried. I haven’t seen my sister in a year,” she said. “I had planned this for a long time.”
Yet the administration continues to send deportees to Caracas. “If you really believed that your regime is about to be attacked by US-launched Tomahawk missiles, why would you continue to coordinate twice-weekly deportation flights with US immigration authorities?” threat intelligence analyst Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Latin American center, asked on X.
People respond to “the peaks and troughs of the narratives and propaganda that circulate, which also seem to unfold like soap opera chapters, with ‘culminating chapters’ and all,” said Colette Capriles, a political scientist with training in social psychology.
President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that action would come “very soon.”
“In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many,” he told service members in a Thanksgiving call. “Of course, there aren’t too many coming in by sea anymore.”
“We’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” Trump said. “The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.”
“We warned them: Stop sending poison to our country,” he added.
A chef in Caracas, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed his exasperation.
“Every time the U.S. speaks, we start to get our hopes up. We think it could happen, finally Maduro will leave,” he said. “But nothing happens. We have seen it too many times: Nothing ever happens.”
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