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Venezuela’s government has launched a crackdown in the wake of the US’s capture of Nicolás Maduro, arresting journalists and deploying paramilitary forces to suppress any show of support for the authoritarian leader’s ousting.
Gun-toting paramilitaries known as colectivos have been deployed to the streets of Caracas under a state of emergency announced on Monday, and media unions said 14 journalists and media workers — 11 from foreign media — have been detained.
Most of the arrests of journalists took place around the National Assembly building as vice-president Delcy Rodríguez — who US President Donald Trump said would lead a government open to Washington’s interests — was formally sworn in as interim president, according to the National Syndicate for Press Workers in Venezuela.
Since US commandos seized Maduro and his politician wife Cilia Flores on Saturday morning and brought them to the US, the remainder of his regime has sought to stifle public celebration.
A state of emergency decree, dated January 3 but published in the official gazette on Monday, directed authorities to “immediately undertake the search for and arrest . . . of any person involved in the promotion of or support for the armed attack by the US against the territory of the republic”.
A human-rights activist in Caracas said repression had significantly escalated on Monday, with authorities “going through people’s phones to see if they had anything that could be construed as support for the actions of the US” and that colectivos have been “mobilised”, with checkpoints erected around the capital.
The colectivos are largely under the control of interior minister Diosdado Cabello, a member of the regime’s hardline faction who also oversees the police.
Journalists were initially allowed to enter the National Assembly building before Rodríguez’s swearing in, though were prohibited from taking photographs or broadcasting live. Later, they were barred from entering outright.
Four of the 14 detained journalists have been released, the National Syndicate said in a post on X on Monday afternoon. It urged authorities “to ensure that all are freed immediately”.
Colombian television network Caracol said one of its reporters, Carlos Barragán, and his team had been “detained by officials from Venezuela’s general directorate of military counter-intelligence and were held for questioning for nearly two hours”.
The identity and whereabouts of several other detained journalists are unknown. Their families are afraid of making their names public for fear of reprisal.
Maduro’s regime was characterised by intense repression before his downfall, with authorities often violently putting down protests while opposition figures have been harassed, arrested or forced into exile. According to Foro Penal, a local rights watchdog, the country has 863 political prisoners.
The streets of eastern Caracas — an opposition stronghold — remained largely deserted in the days following Maduro’s capture, under the watch of armed colectivos.
“We can’t celebrate anything,” said a woman walking through the Chacao neighbourhood on Sunday evening, who declined to give her name. “If we celebrate, the colectivos could kill us.”
One colectivo named Ricardo told the Financial Times that Maduro’s extraction was believed to be the result of a traitor in his ranks, despite the fierce gun battle which preceded his capture in which dozens of his bodyguards were killed.
“We remain active with our rifles and will respond if necessary,” he said.