The port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, remains shrouded in smoke and shock twelve hours after a United States military operation targeted the area. The pre-dawn strikes, part of a mission to capture and extract President Nicolas Maduro, left a landscape of devastation with deformed shipping containers, shattered public buildings, and roofless houses.
Eyewitness accounts paint a picture of sudden terror and confusion. Alpidio Lovera, 47, described the immediate sequence of events: ‘First we saw the flash and then the explosion,’ he recounted, detailing how he fled with his pregnant wife to higher ground. The psychological impact was profound for many residents, with Linda Unamuno, 39, breaking into sobs as she recalled the nightmarish experience. ‘The blast smashed the entire roof of my house,’ she said. ‘I went out, that’s when I saw what was happening. I saw the fire from the airstrikes. It was traumatizing.’
The operation, which US officials stated was designed to clear landing paths for helicopters, resulted in no reported casualties in La Guaira. Emergency crews worked throughout the day, with firefighters using excavators to clear debris of broken glass and gnarled metal while armed police patrolled on motorcycles to prevent looting.
In the capital city of Caracas, the atmosphere was described as eerily quiet despite small gatherings of Maduro supporters demanding his freedom. The rapid removal of a president who had maintained power through years of international sanctions left many citizens incredulous at the day’s events. Maria Eugenia Escobar, 58, told Agence France-Presse: ‘I felt the explosions lift me out of bed. In that instant I thought: ‘My God, the day has come,’ and I cried.’
The military action has sparked both international concern and domestic protest. Katia Briceno, a 54-year-old university professor, joined demonstrations against what she termed US ‘barbarism,’ questioning the legitimacy of a foreign government removing a country’s leader. The operation marks a dramatic escalation in the long-standing political conflict between the United States and Venezuela, with immediate physical and psychological consequences for its citizens.