by OCIEL ALI LOPEZ
Trump’s belligerent rhetoric has returned, but on the streets of Venezuela the mood is one of calm rather than alarm.
Despite Trump’s fiery rhetoric on Venezuela, daily life on the ground is strikingly ordinary. Markets run as usual, streets bustle. The “panic buying” that once erupted in moments of political standoff has disappeared. Friction with “empire” is no longer a daily topic of conversation—and when it does come up, the tone is one of humor and mockery rather than alarm.
This past weekend in Caracas, reggaeton star Nicky Jam filled a new, modern baseball stadium with thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of fans, showing that life goes on without much concern. Yet, there are also jarring images in the public sphere: videos of tanks being transported on the metro, calls for war drills, soldiers stationed at strategic sites.
On Monday, September 29, President Nicolás Maduro signed a decree declaring a “state of external commotion,” a constitutional measure that can be invoked in the face of foreign threats. Still, none of this causes panic and the impact on everyday life remains unclear. Most Venezuelans have long grown accustomed to conflict and to the recurring specter of an external threat that, militarily speaking, has never materialized.
This everyday calm stands in sharp contrast to developments in the Caribbean Sea, where the U.S. Navy has deployed a fleet of destroyers, amphibious ships, a nuclear submarine, Tomahawk missiles, and advanced radar and remote-operation technology. Ten F-35 fighter jets, the most advanced U.S. military aircraft, are stationed in Puerto Rico, just north of Venezuela.
Worse still, these are not just maneuvers. Trump himself has boasted of recent U.S airstrikes on three small boats—or peñeros, as these artisanal fishing vessels are called—allegedly used to transport narcotics, leaving at least 17 dead. On September 13, Venezuelan fishermen reported that a tuna boat was intercepted and boarded by U.S. Marines. Caracas has denounced repeated U.S. incursions into Venezuelan airspace and waters.
Equally unsettling is Washington’s decision in August to raise the bounty for Maduro’s capture to $50 million dollars—much higher than what was once offered for Bin Laden. By declaring Venezuela a “narco-state,” Washington suggests that its problem is not with one man, but with an entire state structure. Such language implies that dismantling it would require more than a simple “extraction,” as occurred with former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, extradited in 2024.
A Familiar Story
For Venezuelans, however, this rhetoric and military display fall flat for a skeptical public that no longer expects an imminent attack. After all, this is nothing new. In 2015, Democratic President Barack Obama declared Venezuela “an extraordinary and unusual threat.” Under Trump’s first administration, an outright military invasion was openly floated. In 2018, Trump warned that “all options are on the table.” In 2019, Juan Guaidó was recognized as a “parallel president” by more than 50 Western governments, accompanied by daily threats.
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