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Protesters have taken to the streets of cities across Venezuela in the latest sign of an embryonic political shift after Nicolás Maduro’s recent downfall.
Student demonstrators gathered on the campus of the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas on Thursday to demand the release of all of the country’s political prisoners, the return of exiled activists and a full transition to democracy. “Who are we? Venezuela! What do we want? Freedom!” they shouted.
“I refuse to live in a country without freedom of expression,” said Angel Gutiérrez, a literature student who was one of hundreds to attend the peaceful march – a public show of dissent unthinkable just a few weeks ago, before US special forces seized Venezuela’s 63-year-old dictator.
As the crowd grew, 27-year-old Gutiérrez complained that throughout his entire adult life the will of the people had been ignored. “I’m here because I refuse to continue to accept my country carrying on under these conditions … A young person without hope is dead,” he said.
In another hint of a possible thaw, the protest was publicised by Venezuelan television networks including Venevisión, which for years have been forbidden from covering such events. Rallies were also held in cities including Barquisimeto, Ciudad Guayana, Maracaibo and Mérida.
“It’s incredible that we are back in the streets. They should know that they will never silence us,” said John Pérez, an international relations student, who joined the march in Venezuela’s capital.
The student-led demonstrations were the latest – and largest – of a series to take place since US troops abducted Maduro on 3 January and partially transformed Venezuela’s authoritarian political landscape.
While much of Maduro’s regime remains in place, led by his vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s new leaders have been forced to make a series of important concessions, including freeing more than 430 political prisoners, proposing an amnesty, tolerating a growing number of protests and rewriting energy laws to allow the greater involvement of foreign oil firms. A small number of foreign journalists were also allowed into the country this week.
“It’s a really weird moment because we are not really in a transition to democracy. We don’t have a date for a fair and free election. The same regime is in power,” said Jesús Armas, a prominent opposition leader who was released on Sunday after 14 months behind bars.
“But at the same time, because of the pressure of the United States, we are starting to see things like the freedom of political prisoners and the people are starting to lose [their] fear,” Armas said, adding: “But of course the regime is the same.”
Yerwin Torrealba, a youth leader from the mid-western state of Yaracuy who was released from prison last month, said he had been astonished to attend a recent protest without being molested by the police. “Two months ago, you couldn’t do this,” said Torrealba, 26, an activist for the movement led by the exiled Nobel laureate María Corina Machado.
“[Before] you’d post a photo [on social media] and they’d issue an arrest warrant just for doing that,” added Torrealba. Now, he felt things were changing. Many activists who went underground after Maduro was accused of stealing the 2024 presidential election from Machado’s surrogate were coming out of hiding.
“This is a big step forwards. People are becoming active in the streets once again,” said Torrealba, voicing confidence that Venezuela was entering a new, less authoritarian era. “It’s still moving a little slowly, but the transition is steadily playing out.”
Thursday’s rallies came one day after the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, landed in Caracas promising “a flood of investment” in the economically distressed South American nation.
In more scenes that would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago given the toxic state of US-Venezuela ties, Trump’s envoy was serenaded by a group of young Venezuelan musicians with maracas and harps.
Speaking to reporters on the steps of the Miraflores presidential palace, Wright said: “I bring today a message from President Trump: he is passionately committed to absolutely transforming the relationship between the United States and Venezuela, part of a broader agenda to make the Americas great again.”
Delcy Rodríguez told her North American guest: “We are sure this first visit will open the door to many more.”
Little more than a month earlier, Rodríguez had accused Trump’s administration of using military action to “capture” Venezuela’s natural resources, which include the largest known oil reserves in the world. Venezuela’s acting president struck a more diplomatic note in a rare interview with NBC News on Thursday, announcing that she was considering accepting an invitation to visit the US. If such a visit materialises it would be the first of its kind since 1999, the year Maduro’s mentor, Hugo Chávez, took power.
Observers remain skeptical about the degree to which Rodríguez’s interim administration will be willing to cede control and warn limited signs of democratic reform could easily be reversed.
On Sunday, the opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa was taken back into detention by armed men just hours after being released from an eight-month stint in prison and later placed under house arrest. Hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars.
Speaking to a pro-Trump television network last weekend, Rodríguez’s brother, the national assembly president, Jorge Rodríguez, ruled out holding fresh elections in the “immediate” future, while the country was being “stabilised”.
Many view their concessions to the White House as a ploy to remain in power, by delaying a vote until after the next US presidential election, in 2028.
“I think if they’re smart, they’re going to be stringing the Trump administration along until the Trump administration is no longer in office – and then hope that everyone just kind of forgets about things,” said Michael Paarlberg, a former Latin America adviser to Bernie Sanders.
“I think Trump has already largely forgotten about Venezuela,” Paarlberg added.
