The United States has urged its citizens to leave Venezuela immediately amid reports that armed paramilitaries are trying to track down US citizens, one week after the capture of the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
In a security alert sent out on Saturday, the state department said there were reports of armed members of pro-regime militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence that the occupants were US citizens or supporters of the country.
“US citizens in Venezuela should remain vigilant and exercise caution when traveling by road,” the alert added, urging citizens to depart immediately now that some international flights from Venezuela have restarted.
Speaking to the New York Times last week, Donald Trump said he would like to visit Venezuela in the future after having claimed the US was “running” the South American country after removing its leaders with a deadly night-time assault on Caracas. “I think at some point it’ll be safe,” the US president told reporters.
But the state department alert exposed how volatile the situation remains after last weekend’s special forces raid, during which scores of people were killed.
While many Venezuelan opponents of Maduro’s regime have celebrated his capture by the US, government supporters have taken to the streets to denounce his rendition as an imperialist act of aggression.
Responding to the security alert the Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a statement that the state department warning was “based on fabricated accounts aimed at creating a perception of risk that does not exist”.
“Venezuela is in absolute calm, peace, and stability,” the ministry said, “All populated centers, communication routes, checkpoints, and security devices are functioning normally, and all weapons of the Republic are under the control of the Bolivarian Government, the sole guarantor of the legitimate monopoly of force and the tranquility of the Venezuelan people.”
Reporters and activists in Caracas have seen rifle-carrying members of the colectivos roaming Venezuela’s capital on motorbikes and setting up checkpoints around the city. The roads connecting Caracas to its western border are policed with dozens of military and police checkpoints.
State department officials made a visit to Caracas on Friday as part of what are believed to be preparations for the re-opening of the US embassy there. Maduro’s successor, the acting president Delcy Rodríguez, has called for improved relations with Washington despite her ally’s abduction.
Separately Venezuela’s deposed leader Maduro claimed he was “doing well” in a US jail as he and his wife Cilia Flores await trial, the ex-leader’s son said in a video on Saturday.
“We are doing well. We are fighters,” Maduro’s son, lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Guerra, quoted him as saying. Maduro Guerra spoke in a video released by the ruling PSUV party.
