US urges Americans to leave Venezuela 'immediately' due to safety risk
The US State Department on Saturday urged Americans in Venezuela to leave the country “immediately,” citing risks from armed militias searching vehicles for US citizens at roadblocks.
“The security situation in Venezuela remains fluid,” the department said in a security alert, one week after the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, was captured by US forces in a lightning raid.
“As international flights have resumed, US citizens in Venezuela should leave the country immediately,” it said, warning of armed militias called colectivos searching cars for Americans or evidence of US support.
The department said Venezuela had been the highest Travel Advisory level – ‘Level 4: Do Not Travel’ – due to severe risks to Americans, including potential wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, and arbitrary enforcement of local laws.
Protests in Caracas
Meanwhile, several hundred supporters of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro staged protests in the capital on Saturday, a week after his capture by US forces, as the interim government moved to revive ties with Washington and slowly released some prisoners.
Waving flags and placards with the face of the moustachioed ex-leader and his wife Cilia, around 1,000 protesters rallied in the west of Caracas and a few hundred in the eastern Petare district – far smaller than demonstrations Maduro’s camp has mustered in the past.
“I’ll march as often as I have to until Nicolas and Cilia come back,” demonstrator Soledad Rodriguez, 69, said of the presidential couple who were taken by US forces to New York to face trial on drug-trafficking charges.
“I trust blindly that they will come back – they have been kidnapped.”
Notably absent from the rallies were top figures from the government, which has said it is reviving diplomatic contact with Washington and discussing possible cooperation on US President Donald Trump’s oil demands.
Interim president Delcy Rodriguez instead attended an agricultural fair, where she vowed in televised comments she would “not rest for a minute until we have our president back.”
The other two hardline powers in the government, Interior Minister and street enforcer Diosdado Cabello, and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, were also not seen at the demos.
Diplomatic manoeuvres
Maduro claimed he was “doing well” in jail, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released on Saturday by his party.
Despite the shock of his capture during deadly nighttime raids on January 3, signs emerged on Friday of cooperation with Washington after Trump’s claim to be “in charge” of the South American country.
Rodriguez said Venezuela would deal with the United States through “the diplomatic route,” and Washington said US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening their embassy.
The Venezuelan government did not respond when asked by AFP whether the US officials had met with Rodriguez.
She has pledged to cooperate with Trump over his demands for access to Venezuela’s huge oil reserves.
But she also moved to placate the powerful pro-Maduro base by insisting Venezuela is not “subordinate” to Washington.
AFP