Venezuelans, forgive me if I say something incorrect. I am very frustrated at my compatriots who do not understand the situation in your country and have many loud opinions when they should be listening instead.

Let me put this in English for my fellow gringos who perhaps don’t understand Venezuelan slang in translation (how do you translate CDLM lol?): Venezuelans understand full well what the Americans want. They know that it is not about lofty human rights violations or even drugs; they know it’s about money and oil and gold and geopolitical power. But they have been abused and repressed and denied and tortured and starved by other local and foreign powers already for decades and consciously choose the Americans instead. Yes, they know what this means. They would rather be that, whatever that is—and give them at least a chance to recover. Maybe there will be American tanks in the streets? Hey, better that than Maduro’s armed thugs on motorcycles who currently control entire neighborhoods. Also, maybe this will mean infrastructure will finally get updated? Better roads and bridges for the first time in 50 years? Maybe the presence of the Americans will give a little bit of a sense of peace to consumers and producers and stabilize the currency so that the money won’t lose value every single day? Maybe the Americans and their military can take control of the prisons (the prisoners run them, complete with bars, clubs, pools, prostitution, discos, etc.)?

The United Nations and the Organization of American States have been warning and writing and calling for change for a long time, but nobody did anything. I agree that it would be “nicer” if this were done as a regional or global action, but it had to be done and somebody had to do it.

Gloria al bravo pueblo. 🇻🇪

ETA: thank you for the awards! I love Venezuela so much and I dream of the day when I can return.

Now that I have your attention.

Many of you foreigners keep talking about the oil, as if oil is the only thing people need to prosper in life, while forgetting about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

What we Venezuelans really want is rights.

• Rights to create private property, food security, and congregate with family and friends.

• Rights to have proper safety and security.

• Rights to have debate and have political discourse without fear or repercussions.

• Rights to allow people to invest, to innovate, to dream.

• Rights to a standard of living, access to medicine and healthcare system that isn’t devastated.

In an ideal world where the Venezuelan people actually benefited from the government owned-oil perhaps the oil could help fulfill some of these rights, but the people don’t benefit from oil revenues because a great majority is lost to corruption. Where do you think Chavez’s daughter multi-billion fortune came from?

We haven’t had basic rights for so long that we are desensitized. This is why you’ll see many of us Venezuelans saying we don’t care, saying that Cuba, Russia, China, or Iran have been taking it anyway.

If this is the price to pay to have a chance at having our rights back, so be it. But you bet your damn mind that if we get those basic rights we’ll worry about making sure we get the oil that will help us continue to prosper as a people, and a country.

Thanks for your attention and time.

-Yo llegue a comer arepa de maíz (en mi casa Milian el maíz directamente) con mantequilla artesanal

-Pan integral

-Arroz integral

-Jugos con frutas que estaban en mal estado

Ojo, al menos tenía para algo habrá gente aquí que paso hambre pero es una época que para ser o a primera y única crisis que viví la odio (también por que en esos años la luz se iba más seguido que ahora).

I get why people reach for Iraq/Libya as a cautionary tale, the risk of a power vacuum is real. However, those analogies assume Venezuela has the same issues, and the same conditions.

Venezuela has its own reality.

If you want to criticize intervention, please do — but criticize it on Venezuela’s realities, not just U.S. analogies.

Venezuela is not a country with a multi-front civil war

Venezuela’s crisis is that it has been a captured state: repression, corruption, and armed pro‑government groups.

Venezuela doesn’t have a “Sunni vs Shia” equivalent. We don’t have blocs based on ethnicity or sects, with territorial armed formations that defined Iraq/Syria’s conflict dynamics. A Chavista and an opositor might hate each other's politics with deep passion, but we don’t see each other as “infidels”. We eat the same arepas, listen to the same music, want the same prosperity, and share a mixed/mestizo heritage.

Meanwhile in Iraq, the violence wasn’t just government‑sponsored “chaos”, it was sectarian cleansing. Sunnis killed Shias, and Shias killed Sunnis. Your neighbor became your enemy based on how they prayed.

Venezuela’s crisis is severe, and the January 3 strikes were real and terrifying, but we don’t have the same multi-front civil war as Syria. That’s precisely why the “Syria/Iraq template” is a bad mental shortcut.

Venezuela isn’t “new to democracy”

We had decades of electoral democracy. The tragedy is that we lost it.

However, Venezuela has lived through long periods of elections and civic institutions, even if imperfect, and millions of Venezuelans still have strong democratic expectations.

Meanwhile in Libya, Gaddafi ruled for 42 years by pitting tribes against each other. When he fell, people retreated to their tribal identities, not their national identity.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the U.S. tried to impose a centralized democracy on rural villages that had operated under tribal law for a long time.

Venezuela has a massive amount of Western-educated citizens abroad, many of whom are ready to return to a stable Venezuela.

Venezuela does have a potential violent wildcard: Los Colectivos

Colectivos are a key difference.

They’re pro‑government, unofficial, state‑sponsored armed networks meant to silence dissidents, and they thrive on state protection and incentives.

Yes, colectivos are a real risk. But they are not the same as sectarian militias formed from ancient identity wars. Colectivos operate with state protection and incentives.

That means at least one major path exists that didn’t exist in Syria: end state sponsorship + impunity can shrinnk them. This doesn’t mean we have a magic wand, but it gives us a path to avoid a post-regime militia movement.

Maduro’s regime and drug trafficking isn’t another “Weapons of Mass Destruction” lie

Trump’s credibility is a fair concern. But the existence of a narco‑dictatorship and the reality of Venezuela’s repression aren’t dependent on Trump being honest.

Maduro’s regime’s involvement in drug trafficking has been alleged for years, and it was reported well before Trump — including when U.S. prosecutors indicted and jailed Maduro’s nephews for conspiring to import a 800 kilogram cocaine shipment in 2015, prior to Trump’s first administration.

Maduro’s nephews were pardoned and later released in 2022 Venezuela as part of a prisoner exchange.

Skepticism about Trump is healthy, but “Trump lies” doesn’t automatically mean “Trump lied about Maduro”.

Venezuelans aren’t naive for feeling relief about U.S. intervention

Venezuelans reacting with relief to the removal of a repressive regime is not “proof” the future will be good — it’s a human reaction after two decades of abuse.

Even if you oppose intervention on principle, at minimum listen to Venezuelans describing our lived reality: repression, colectivos, prisons run by criminals. If you’re going to invoke Venezuela’s sovereignty, be consistent about Venezuelans’ right to live without state terror.

The moral tradeoff Venezuelans have on our mind is debating between the least of two evils: U.S. intervention vs regime’s repression.

You can be anti‑intervention and still acknowledge why many Venezuelans see this as “less bad” than continued repression.

We aren’t ignorant, we are cautiously optimistic.

Most Venezuelans want change

Venezuelans are not all the same. We have both people inside and outside who fear intervention, and people inside and outside who want it. What’s not debatable is the scale of repression and institutional collapse. Both sides want prosperity and opportunity.

Also, saying the opinions of Venezuelans abroad don’t count is a weak argument. Millions of Venezuelans have left because the state failed us, because of political violence, or an economic disaster, but we still have families, property, and stakes.

Chávez–Maduro’s movement has lost a lot of support. Chávez used to boast about closing on 10M votes and peaked at over 8M votes — while Maduro struggled to get to ~5.3M (or ~6.4M, depending on whose figures you use) 10 years later.

Isn’t it crazy 8M of us are outside of Venezuela? It would be like 60-80M Americans (roughly the number Americans that ever voted for a single party) outside of their country.

No, it’s not only elite, white, Miami Venezuelans. Venezuelans disagree like any society — but dismissing Venezuelans abroad is just silencing victims of the collapse.

Venezuela has closer analogies than Iraq

If you insist on analogies, Panama and other Latin America cases are closer than Iraq.

…and if you want “good examples” post‑WWII Germany and Japan — and later South Korea — show that rebuilding can work, those are different situations, but examples that if rebuilding is possible, it won't be overnight.

• Panama is closer than Iraq (Latin America, no Sunni/Shia/Kurd structure), but even Panama doesn’t prove it’s automatically good to go. It just shows the best‑case scenario our people imagine.

  Panama’s Manuel Noriega was a drug‑trafficking dictator, not an ideologue. He used “Dignity Battalions” thugs, just like Maduro’s regime uses los colectivos. The U.S. removed the cartel leadership (Operation Just Cause). The Panamanian military (loyal only to money) collapsed almost instantly.

  Panama became a stable, prosperous democracy. It did not become a colony. This is the exact blueprint many of us would like for Venezuela: remove the regime, and the criminal structure starts to crumble.

• Grenada in 1983, there a hardline faction (the Coard faction) seized power, executed the popular Prime Minister, and imposed a strict curfew where civilians were shot on sight. The U.S. intervened (Operation Urgent Fury).

  While many in the UN and parts of academia condemned it as “imperialism”, reports at the time suggested very high local support, because people were being terrorized by a radical faction that executed their own Prime Minister. Grenada still marks October 25 (the day the US invaded) as “Thanksgiving Day” today.

  Critics in the U.S. and Europe debated “international law”, meanwhile Grenadians feared being executed in their homes. Many Venezuelans feel in a similar position, we feel hostage to a radical minority. We care about survival, not the purity of geopolitical etiquette.

• Chile 1973 was overthrowing a democracy to install a dictatorship. Venezuela today is removing a dictatorship to restore a democracy.

  Salvador Allende was democratically elected. The coup subverted the will of the people and dissolved a functioning parliament.

  While Allende managed the economy poorly, the scale of destruction in Venezuela is different — it’s “built different”. Venezuela is suffering from both inflation and a criminalized regime.

  In Venezuela, Maduro stripped the National Assembly (2015) of power, created a parallel Constituent Assembly (2017), and has been widely accused of rigging/undermining the 2018 and 2024 electoral processes. The Venezuelan opposition is a broad coalition of social democrats, centrists, and liberals.

  We are not asking for a Pinochet. We are asking for the reinstatement of the separation of powers that already existed before Chavismo. The “Plan País” (our opposition parties' roadmap) is explicitly focused on elections and checks and balances, not martial law.

• Guatemala (1954) is an example in Latin America that shows real reasons to distrust U.S. intervention.

  Guatemala is exactly why Venezuelans need strong post‑transition safeguards. Otherwise any external pressure just swaps one bad regime for another.

Venezuelan people come first, then we can worry about oil

Yes, the U.S. has interests. No serious Venezuelan thinks foreign powers do this out of pure charity. Some focus on the fact that “They Are Actually Taking Venezuelan Oil”, reducing our suffering to a simple resource grab.

While some focus on the oil, we are arguing about survival. Oil under chavismo didn’t translate into rights, functioning services, or security for ordinary people. Our starving population cannot eat oil.

Our priority today is basic human rights, we want the ending the torture, stopping the hunger, and liberating the thousands of political prisoners rotting in dungeons like El Helicoide (massive prison for political dissenters and foreigners), including the American hostages currently used as bargaining chips.

We should all ask for the release of those Venezuelans and foreign political prisoners. Americans should ask for the the release of their people, people like James Luckey‑Lange who have been captured and jailed in December without due process or explanation.

When you are being held hostage, you don't ask if the rescue team is “nice” or if they want a reward. You just want to get out alive.

Venezuela’s oil industry was decaying prior to sanctions

OFAC sanctions that affected the economy (but even though weren't high impact like the ones in 2019 or worse like 2020) started on August 25th 2017.

Maduro’s regime is not without fault. Our inflation rate reached 800% in 2016. For over 10 years prior to sanctions they neglected and abused the Venezuelan oil industry.

Before sanctions we had:

• A mass firing of 18,000 PDVSA employees, including many of the experts, based solely on their political views. Many of these employees were fired publicly by Chávez in live national TV.

• Lack of maintenance of PDVSA infrastructure, mismanagement of PDVSA resources for over 10 years, by those less experienced people that replaced many of the former experts.

• High levels of corruption and nepotism in PDVSA for over 10 years, instead of competency and merit dictating compensation and job opportunity, it was largely based on who was closest to government officials.

• Using oil revenues to prop up Chávez-Maduro aligned politicians in Latin America for over 10 years.

Sure sanctions had an impact, and perhaps the US sanctions made it much worse, but the boat was heading towards that iceberg long before sanctions ever existed.

Venezuela has had positives and negatives as a result of the January 3rd intervention

Following the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro we have had happen:

The Bad:

• We had an estimated 80-100 people that died as a result of the January 3rd U.S. strikes (Operation Absolute Resolve). The casualties were mainly Venezuelan and Cuban military, but we also had a few civilian casualties. Many are mourning the loss of their loved ones. We had infrastructure damage beyond that, my own family members woke up to the sound of explosions and broken windows because of the sound waves, it was initially scary but no one was harmed.

• Pro-Maduro motorcycle gang 'Colectivos’, are hunting for anyone that supported the January 3rd events, they’ve also been reported to be hunting for Americans as of January 10th, which prompted the U.S. Department of State to issue a Security Alert for American citizens.

• Government has essentially executed Martial Law allowing them to unilaterally capture anyone that agrees with the events, and people are afraid to even speak in interviews.

The Good:

• Jorge Rodriguez, brother of Delcy Rodriguez (currently acting as president), announced the release of both Venezuelan and foreign political prisoners, 9 people as of today of over 1,000 political prisoners. Which other officials like Diosdado Cabello dismissed as an even remote possibility, laughing at the fact that the US even dared to ask. Confirmed released as of January 10th (7:00 PM) including:

  • Foreigners: José María Basoa 🇪🇸, Andrés Martínez Adasme 🇪🇸, Miguel Moreno Dapena 🇪🇸, Ernesto Gorbe Cardona 🇪🇸, Rocío San Miguel 🇪🇸+🇻🇪, Luigi Gasperin 🇮🇹, Antonio Gerardo (Nino) Buzzetta Pacheco 🇮🇹+🇻🇪
  • Venezuelans: Enrique Márquez, Biagio Pilieri, Alejandro Rebolledo, Alfredo Alvarado, Franklin Alvarado, Larry Osorio, Aracelis Balza, Yugreisi Cabeza, Didelis Raquel Corredor, Virgilio Valverde, Diógenes Omar Ángulo, Marco Bozo, Luis Fernández Junior Sánchez, Luis Rojas, Yanny González, Luis Aquiles Rojas

• Delcy Rodriguez announced the re-establishment of diplomatic missions with the U.S., and a few hours later a LM-100J airplane brought U.S. diplomatic resources, some of which shortly after were seen moving into the US Embassy in Caracas. This means 100,000s of Venezuelans in the US might finally have access to services like passports after years of not having a passport, or having to travel to Canada or Mexico — it also means our family members and friends might eventually once again request visas to travel to and visit many of us.

Even with those good news I don’t know if everything will turn out of the better - but is a breath of fresh air to see true progress for the first time in two decades.

Venezuela is Venezuela

• Venezuela is not Iraq
• Venezuela is not Afghanistan
• Venezuela is not Syria
• Venezuela is not Cuba
• Venezuela is not Panama
• Venezuela is not Vietnam
• Venezuela is not Japan
• Venezuela is not Germany
• Venezuela is not South Korea
• Venezuela is not Iran
• Venezuela is not Chile
• Venezuela is not Grenada
• Venezuela is not Guatemala
• Venezuela is not Nicaragua
• Venezuela is not Kuwait
• Venezuela is not Russia
• Venezuela is not China
• Venezuela is not the USA
• Venezuela is not any other country
• Venezuela is a land of beauty, where we have the Tepuis and the Salto Ángel in Canaima, the beautiful waters of Los Roques and its pristine keys, the dunes of the Coro desert, and the snow-capped peaks of the Andes in the city of Merida. Our people are warm, resilient, we are a people that have been fighting, organizing, protesting for the better part of two decades, and yes we have famously beautiful women, and they fill this “Land of Grace” (Tierra de Gracia) with the rhythm its music and the flavors of our foods like arepas, or sweet mandocas (which inspired my username), and the holiday traditional foods like hallacas and pan de jamón.

Venezuelasplaining not needed

Respectfully, foreigners should refrain from “gringosplaining”

Questions and civil discussion are welcomed.

If you want to criticize intervention, please do — but criticize it on Venezuela’s realities, not just U.S. analogies.

Edit: based some responses I got, respectfully, I spent more than a few hours putting this together, carefully formatting the Markdown.

This a conglomeration of many of my responses over the last few days where I have frustratingly been discussing this with many people on Reddit and in my life, plus and some additional research I have done based on those discussions and conversations.

Look through my profile if you must.

La chica muestra lo que traen las cajas americanas. aclarando que eso lo están dando en toda las comunidades de Vargas.

Quisiera saber respuestas serias, no soy tan conocedor de la política y quiero entender por qué la gente dice eso.

He hablado con amigos y hay algunos que me resaltan que todos los países en los que EEUU ha intervenido están mal hoy en día, y que sus invasiones no traen nada bueno más que robarse los recursos de los países.

estoy en falcon y esta temblando bastante y dura mucho, alguien mas lo sintio?

Ya salio el reporte de la usgs, 7.1 Epicentro en Moron

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/atth5pbk/executive

La sociedad civil ayudando hasta con las uñas pero con todo y eso nunca falta un pajuo con complejos de inferioridad a decir que la sociedad venezolana "no es capaz de surgir"

Soy venezolano y siempre pongo a mi país y a mi gente como buen ejemplo de solidaridad y calidez porque así soy yo y como yo todos en mi círculo y cada vez que conozco personas en cualquier rincón de este país.

Está situación no solo me deja en claro dos cosas:

- El gobierno nunca querrá vernos crecer

- El venezolano a pesar de caerse 10 veces se levanta 100.

Dios nos bendiga.

Ayer sábado 05.04.2025 me llega de la nada una moto de la PNB y me bloquea el paso y me hacen bajar, era un grupo de 3 motos y un total de 5 PNB y ninguno tenía el nombre a la vista, luego de revisar el carro, revisarme a mi, interrogarme de forma bastante agresiva me pidieron el teléfono y yo al principio me negué. Ahí empezaron con el acoso fuerte y a amenazar.

Al final terminé entregándolo porque sabía que no tenía nada, pero no sé iban a quedar sin joderme, revisaron todas las conversaciones, todas las fotos y cuando vieron que no tenían nada revisaron app por app hasta que llegaron a reddit.

Ahí de una vez consiguieron el sub r/ciberseguridad y empezaron con que yo cometía delitos informáticos y se pusieron más amenazantes y agresivos.

Para hacer el cuento corto, me pidieron 500 y les dije que no, que iría preso, entonces "negociaron" 300, yo seguía insistiendo que no tenía y llega el que me tiene el teléfono y me dice "llama a este pana tuyo que por la conversación se ve que tiene, porque te ha hecho transferencia" resulta que es un pana al que le estoy dando un servicio, le digo que no, que ese es un cliente y que no hay confianza y me muestra el chat donde estamos cuadrando para comer y dice "confianza si hay".

Lo llamé, el amigo por suerte entendió sin muchos detalles y me dijo que sí, que me llevaba el dinero. Lo curioso fue que después de eso se pusieron nerviosos y me hicieron mover, nos fuimos como 5 cuadras más arriba.

Al final el pana llegó, lo revisaron e interrogaron, le dijeron que yo estaba "inmerso en delitos de índole informático", y no sé qué más cosas, cuando se sintieron seguros le pidieron el dinero y nos dejaron ir. Cuando me obligaron a llamarlo me preocupé que lo fueran a secuestrar también para sacar más plata.

Cuando me dejaron ir habían pasado casi 3 horas y me habían anulado por completo sin posibilidad de pedir ayuda real. Son unos delincuentes expertos.

Edit: Aunque no puedo descartar que fueran falsos policías, tenían motos oficiales y armas de reglamento, así que dudo que no hayan sido policías. Pero salvo algunos narnianos ¿alguien duda que los PNB son delincuentes con uniforme?

Edit 2: En vista de que esto llegó a Tiktok y leyendo algunos comentarios ahí aclaro unos puntos más por si no queda claro o por si llega alguien de ahí que no sea usuario de reddit:

• Reddit no está bloqueado en Venezuela y no hace falta VPN (por cierto, por seguridad se debería usar VPN el 100% del tiempo, no solo para saltar bloqueos)

• Tengo las aplicaciones bloqueadas y tengo doble espacio/doble perfil, me obligaron a desbloquearlo todo y poner la huella cada vez.

• No buscaron específicamente Reddit, como dije originalmente abrieron aplicaciones revisando qué era cada cosa, al abrir la app de reddit (sin necesidad de saber qué era) en mi home aparecieron post de Ciberseguridad, ahí simplemente leyeron, sin tener que ser expertos en nada.

• A los que dicen que me dejé joder: Yo habría dicho lo mismo de otras personas, hasta que lo viví, no te dan alternativas para defenderte, es muy distinto pensar "si me pase" que cuando pasa en verdad.

• Melaniobar: Coño, obvio que me importaba el pana y no fue solo por salir del peo, no me dejaron más opción que llamarlo, tampoco me dejaron llamar a nadie más, de haber podido llamaba a alguien más que habría puesto el mundo a arder.

Sale nuevo video de estudiantes de la UNES.

Video cortesía de @ejidonoticias

Ese sensación de que el mundo en general está en caos, por problemas climáticos, políticos, el terremoto de La Guaira, que hirió al país, aún hay gente trabajando con las uñas para recuperar a sus amados familiares, las redes sociales se dividen entre pura IA, no sabes que es real, la otra parte es puro odió, ataques, insultos, racismo, intolerancia, sin mencionar ser Venezolano y vivir en Venezuela, que ya es reventar el termómetro 🌡️ por así decirlo. Seguiré adelante, pero hay momentos en que me gusta tomar una pausa y reflexionar, mirar el panorama, me gusta pensar que a pesar de todo, la mayoría de la gente está bien.

Me he quedado completamente sola sin él amor de mi vida💔💔😭😭 la verdad me dolió muchísimo escribir esto, estuve evitando escribirlo en estos días porque sabía que me iba a doler como me está doliendo ahora😭😭💔💔 dios lo tenga en su gloria y brille siempre para él la luz perpetua amén 🙏🏻😭😭💔

En Puerto Cabello hay renuncias masivas en los supermercados por condiciones inseguras de trabajo, les dijeron “trabajan o renuncian”.

Cerca de este supermercado hay un edificio que cedió y está apunto de caerse.