AI Summary
5 min readInside Caracas: Venezuela after Maduro
A hundred days after American special forces seized Nicolás Maduro and flew him to New York, Kinley Salmon, The Economist's Latin America correspondent, finally got a visa to Venezuela. What he found in Caracas and beyond was "quite a striking feeling of optimism." In Ocumare del Tuy, a town traditionally loyal to the regime, hundreds of people packed a political meeting for María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize and then snuck out of the country on a small boat—a journey that fractured a vertebra—to receive it in Norway. The organizers told Salmon that just months earlier, they had all been in prison or hiding. One woman attended a political event for the first time in her life, bringing her daughter because she wanted "to try to help build a better future for her children."
The regime that remains
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:25) **On the Ground in Post-Maduro Venezuela** - Correspondent Kinley Salmon describes a surprising sense of optimism among Venezuelans just 100 days after Maduro's capture, despite the regime still being in power.
- 2 (04:24) **Why Freedom Is Blossoming Under a Still-Repressive Regime** - Salmon explains the paradox of growing freedom even though Maduro's socialist-turned-authoritarian party remains in charge under new leader Delcy Rodriguez.
- 3 (06:04) **The Scale of Venezuela's Destruction** - Salmon balances the positive direction with the harsh reality of the country's economic and social collapse.
- 4 (07:18) **The Grim Reality of Political Prisoners** - Despite the optimism, the regime's repressive machinery still operates, with many political prisoners still detained and families desperate for their release.
- 5 (08:50) **Cautious Hope and the Fear That Remains** - The new freedom to protest coexists with lingering caution, as opposition rallies still check names at the door to prevent infiltration.
- 6 (09:30) **The Huge Question: Will There Be Real Elections?** - The path to a democratic transition is uncertain and heavily dependent on American pressure, which is currently focused on oil, not elections.
- 7 (11:03) **Meeting Maria Karina Machado** - Salmon describes meeting the opposition leader in her temporary Washington D.C. office, just blocks from the White House.
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Show Notes
When America seized Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro in January, it left the rest of his regime intact. Three months on, our correspondent finds optimism and some loosening of repression. Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado fled to America, now she explains her ambitions for the country. And celebrating the life of Nick Pope, who spent decades investigating UFOs.
Guests and host:
- Kinley Salmon, Latin America correspondent
- Ann Wroe, obituaries editor
- Rosie Blau, host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Venezuela, oil, Maduro, Trump
- María Corina Machado, elections
- Nick Pope, UFOs, aliens, NASA
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