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In the early hours of 3 January, Sader Guerra and his family were shaken awake when the bombing ordered by Donald Trump started in Caracas. “My daughter called me, she said: ‘The Americans are bombarding us, Dad, we are under attack’,” he recalls.
Caraqueños like Guerra are used to the sounds of military demonstrations and low-flying planes disturbing their sleep, particularly those living within earshot of Fort Tiuna military base. “I saw the planes but I thought they were Venezuelan,” Guerra shrugs.
Just before dawn, his daughter sent him a video clip: Nicolás Maduro in handcuffs, being escorted by US soldiers. Even then, Sader was doubtful. “I thought the video was AI-generated,” he says. “It was only once the sun came up and we saw the devastation around us – the destruction, people killed – that the news became real.”
In the days that followed, Caracas entered a state residents describe as “tense calm”.
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