Gangs of armed pro-regime militants on motorbikes have taken over the streets of Caracas, hunting down Venezuelans who support the US’s audacious capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, according to videos and on-the-ground accounts shared with The Post and multiple reports.
The masked thugs, known as Colectivos, holding Russian automatic weapons, brought rush hour traffic to a grinding halt in the Venezuelan capital, stopping drivers at checkpoints and demanding to search their phones and cars, four sources in Venezuela confirmed Monday and Tuesday.
The troubled circumstances have residents on edge over what will happen next, said the Venezuelans, who requested anonymity because of the threat of retaliation.
“The situation is very tense,” one man told The Post.
Another, a Venezuelan journalist, said some fellow reporters are in hiding, for fear of their arrest — and the documented torture that happens in Caracas prisons.
“[One] used to work in media, now they don’t for fear [of the regime,]” the journalist said.
Other residents said they’ve left their cellphones at home, fearing they will be confiscated.
“The future is uncertain, the Colectivos have weapons, the Colombian guerrilla is already here in Venezuela, so we don’t know what’s going to happen, time will tell,” Oswaldo, a 69-year-old Venezuelan shop owner, told the Telegraph.
Gunshots and anti-aircraft fire were also reported over the Caracas overnight, CNN reported — however a Venezuelan ministry spokesperson later said it had fired on drones flying without permission but that “no confrontation occurred.”
One source shared video with The Post from Caracas that appeared to show the Rodriguez government delivering weapons to civilian supporters of the regime known as “milicianos,” or militiamen.
The remaining government in power, headed by Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who was sworn in as the country’s interim president on Monday, has declared a state of emergency banning any celebration of the US military operation.
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Police have been told to “immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack by the United States.” So far, 14 journalists, including 11 from foreign outlets, have also been detained.
As part of that mission, Rodriguez has granted officials authority to detain and search through civilians’ cellphones for proof of support for the dictator’s arrest.
Venezuela’s national press union said that journalists had their equipment and messaging apps searched.
“It is not possible to move towards a democratic transition while political persecution, censorship, arbitrary imprisonment, and the systematic violation of fundamental rights persist,” the group said in a statement. “Freedom of expression, the right of access to information, and the right to work are not concessions of political power, but fundamental human rights, enshrined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and in the international treaties signed by the State.”
“Their sustained violation has had a direct impact on the practice of journalism, has weakened public debate, and has deprived citizens of truthful and timely information, an indispensable condition for democratic participation and citizen oversight,” they added.
The deployment of the Colectivos, who are largely under control of Maduro’s closest ally, interior minister Diosdado Cabello, shows how desperately Maduro loyalists are trying to hold onto power.
“Always loyal, never traitors,” members of the paramilitary shouting in a video with Cabello — who has a $50 million drug trafficking bounty on his head.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were extracted from Venezuela by US forces overnight Saturday and hit with narco-terrorism charges following a months-long campaign of airstrikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean.
The pair pleaded not guilty in New York City federal court with the toppled dictator leader defiantly asserting he is “still president of my country.”
Rodriguez, meanwhile, said that her country was ready to work with the US, after she earlier criticized the raid as an illegal effort to grab the country’s national resources.
Venezuela opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, who has been living in hiding, said she plans to return to Venezuela as soon as possible.
However, Trump has seemed reluctant to immediately let her lead Venezuela, which Trump himself has vowed to “run” for the time being.
“I don’t think she’s got the support of the people that she has to have,” Trump told the Post Sunday. “That’s all.”
