As US piles pressure on Maduro's regime, Venezuelans focus on everyday survival

The state has been mandating Christmas celebrations since October — but across the country fear, anxiety and surveillance are all on the rise

- Mie Hoejris Dahl

On Wednesday, US forces descended by rope from a helicopter to seize a large oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, accusing it of carrying sanctioned crude. The same day, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was completing a perilous journey out of her home country, arriving late for her Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo.

Yet, censorship and a government-imposed sense of normality back in Venezuela mean daily life has largely continued as usual in the context of a collapsed economy and a renewed wave of repression. Some quietly hope US pressure could help force political change, but that hope is tempered by years of failed efforts to dislodge the authoritarian regime - and by deep anxiety over what military intervention might mean for ordinary citizens.