Reality check for hopes of post-Maduro revival

A military boot with a red star stomps the head of a cartoonish Donald Trump, who bears a Hitler mustache and whose golden crown lies on the ground.

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FISH, at $1 to $2.30 a pound, is a popular alternative to beef, about $6 per pound. Above, a stand in Caracas. MOST PURCHASES are made through bank cards or via telephone apps linked to personal accounts. MARKET STALLS are brimming with produce. The problem: Not all shoppers have the money to buy.

(Photographs by ANDREA HERNÁNDEZ BRICEÑO For The Times)

“No more Kings” is emblazoned in English, next to an oil barrel with a Spanish-language demand: “No More War for Petroleum.”

The scene captures some of the contradictions in Caracas almost one month after Trump dispatched troops to snatch President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and fly them to New York to face drug-trafficking and weapons charges — which the couple denounce as a frame-up.

In Caracas, most people seem too preoccupied with daily survival to pay attention to the political posters or the latest pronouncements of the ruling United Socialist Party, which now, in an improbable turnaround, appears to be bowing to the U.S. president’s demands.

Widespread hopes for a sweeping revival after Maduro’s ouster have crashed in the face of a sobering reality: Deposing a strongman can be a lot easier than transforming a nation.

Most of Venezuela’s 28 million people face the same challenges and sense of apprehension that they have endured for a dozen or so years. Cratering oil prices, a bungling government and punishing U.S. sanctions combined to collapse the economy of what was once Latin America’s richest nation, leading to hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicines and mass emigration.

Despite Trump’s vows of a new prosperity, many say things have gotten worse since Maduro’s removal. Uncertainty abounds, fueling inflation that, according to the International Monetary Fund, may soar to almost 700% this year.