Overview
- Multiple accounts describe a forcible removal of Nicolás Maduro from central power, a development still reported as evolving with limited independent corroboration.
- President Donald Trump publicly labeled himself Venezuela’s “liberator” and said he intends to establish a U.S.-tutored transitional government, according to the reporting.
- Key regime figures appeared unsettled, with Delcy Rodríguez activating a vague contingency plan and Diosdado Cabello denouncing the events without naming Maduro.
- The reported turn follows a long trajectory of hyper-presidential rule that dismantled institutions, censored media, empowered colectivos, and sidelined the opposition through a Constituent Assembly while leaving the 2024 results opaque.
- PDVSA’s collapse—from about 3.3 million barrels per day in the late 1990s to roughly one million recently, with part of output used to service large debts to China—fed chronic shortages, inflation, and a mass exodus.