The distance between the Venezuelan and abducted President Nicolas Maduro is now about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers), and U.S. special forces flew him to New York.
But Mario, who lives in Caracas, is concerned about publicly celebrating against the ouster of the leader overseeing a government agency that has become synonymous with repression for many Venezuelans.
Maduro’s government remains largely intact after Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as acting president on Monday with the blessing of US President Donald Trump. Her track record within the Maduro regime worries many Venezuelans. People interviewed by Al Jazeera said they self-censored on social media, deleting texts and avoiding talking about politics in public.
Since the U.S. bombing, Venezuelan police have announced the arrest of at least four people for celebrating Maduro’s arrest or mocking the former leader.
“[The police] Police in the western city of Mérida said in a statement that they had “arrested two citizens of Guaraque who were celebrating the kidnapping of President Maduro,” while authorities in the state of Carobobo said in a statement that they had “arrested two people on charges of inciting hatred and rebellion.”
The crackdown came after the government declared a state of emergency on Saturday and ordered security forces to “immediately begin searching for and capturing persons involved in promoting or supporting armed attacks by the United States” and prosecute them.
Screenshots of the ordinance have been circulating on social media, with some residents claiming it has a chilling effect.
“The fear is that they will imprison you unjustly, indict you, charge you with whatever they want and send you to prison,” Mario told Al Jazeera in a phone interview from Caracas.
He said he stopped using the main roads to avoid security checkpoints and clashes with pro-government militias known as colectivos. He also said he had not posted anything on social media about the U.S. attack and had deleted any videos that could be seen as provocations by the government.
“That’s not a good sign.”
As vice president, Rodriguez took control of the Bolivarian State Intelligence Service (SEBIN) in 2018, during one of the most repressive periods of the Maduro regime.
“I think she’s more realistic [than Maduro]” Laura Cristina Dib, Venezuela director at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), told Al Jazeera. “But that doesn’t mean she isn’t also part of the apparatus of oppression.”
The United Nations has accused SEBIN of torturing dozens of opposition politicians, journalists, and activists, including inside Caracas’s notorious El Helicoid detention center.
On Tuesday, Rodriguez appointed former SEBIN chief Gustavo Enrique González López as the new head of the Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), which has been accused of human rights abuses by the United Nations.
“This is not a good sign,” Dib said, adding that González López was one of the first Venezuelan officials to be sanctioned under the Obama administration and continued the torture policy at El Helicoid as SEBIN director.
He also helped oversee the People’s Liberation (OLP), a years-long operation to root out opposition using abuses and extrajudicial killings, resulting in the deaths of hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of people, mostly in poor areas.
Dibb said Gonzalez-Lopez’s appointment is “not a step in the right direction.”
“Shock factor”
Almost a year and a half after the 2024 election, in which President Maduro crushed protests against electoral fraud, Carlos Rusberti, a researcher at the Human Rights Center at the Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas, believes the repression remains in the hearts of Venezuelans.
“At that time, I think there was a general wave of arrests and repression that sensitized the population in general in terms of silencing any expression that could be understood as criticism of the government,” Rusberti told Al Jazeera.
He said the “shock factor” from recent U.S. airstrikes has only increased paranoia, and some Venezuelans fear the current government will return to previous tactics.
“It’s scary that you can get arrested just for having a meme.” [about Maduro] “That’s the fear that exists today and that’s why people avoid saying things and commenting on things on the street,” Viviana, a 31-year-old flower seller in Caracas, told Al Jazeera.
