Caracas faces crackdown as rulers use militias to stifle notions of power vacuum

Venezuela’s rulers have deployed armed militias to patrol streets, operate checkpoints and check people’s phones in a crackdown to consolidate authority after the US attack on Caracas.

- María de los Angeles Graterol Rory Carroll

There are armed civilians here. You never know what might happen' Caracas resident

Paramilitary groups known as colectivos crisscrossed the capital with motorbikes and assault rifles yesterday ina show of force to stifle any perception of a power vacuum.

The patrols stopped and searched carsand demanded accessto people’s phones to check contacts, messages and social media posts ina stark demonstration that the regime remained incharge despite the abduction ofthe president, Nicolas Maduro.

Anyone suspected of supporting Saturday’s USraid was liable to arrest, said Mirelvis Escalona, 40, aresident in the western Caracas neighbourhood of Catia. “There’s fear. There are armed civilians here. You never know what might happen.”

Asemblance of normality returned to much of the city, with shops reopening and people going to workbut uncertainty over what will happen next created a febrile mood.

The interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, has sought to project asense ofcalmand control since being sworn in on Monday but there was no disguising the government’sjitteriness.

In addition to the humiliation of Maduro’s appearance in a New York court on narco-trafficking charges, the authorities face the risk of a fresh US attack, economic collapse,

internal regime fracture and the return of overseas-based opposition leaders.