Caracas.- With a dollar that rises daily, weekly protests for wages, and Chavismo retaining government control, Venezuela marks five months without Nicolás Maduro and a reality that for many has not changed, despite the military operation that removed the Chavista leader from power and which, in Donald Trump’s opinion, has brought joy to Venezuelans.
After the initial impact of the U.S. operation on January 3rd, Venezuelans do not see any economic relief despite Washington’s participation in areas such as oil and mining, while the country’s political fate—under the leadership of interim president Delcy Rodríguez—remains an unknown.
And although the easing of US sanctions has allowed for oil deals to be sealed with investors and has facilitated the country’s return to organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the economic announcements are on a path separate from people’s pockets and real well-being remains absent, according to testimonies collected by EFE.
Neither freedom nor democracy
Guarantees, freedoms, and democracy, in the opinion of the citizenry, are also an outstanding debt.
“This is a transitional Government that, until now, favors the interests of the United States (…). The people have not fully achieved either their freedom or their democracy,” indicated Luis Laguado, 79 years old and a retiree from the Simón Rodríguez University in Caracas.
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Laguado was participating last Friday in a protest for decent pensions due to an “insufficient” increase in bonuses for pensioners and active workers, set at 70 and 240 dollars per month, respectively, as announced at the end of April by Rodríguez.
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In Venezuela, the basic food basket exceeds 700 dollars per month and its cost increases every month at the pace of constant devaluation. In the first five months of this year alone, the national currency devalued by 45%, more than half of what was recorded during 2025, when it depreciated by 8%. As of April, the country had accumulated an inflation rate of 90%.
Trump “is misinformed”
Far from the optimistic projections about an economic rebound and the announcement of the restructuring of an external debt estimated at up to 170 billion dollars, and even the comment by U.S. President Donald Trump about an alleged joy among the Venezuelan people, for Laguado the reality is measured on the street and remains “very serious.”
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“He is the only one dancing, thinking that in November he is going to win the election with the vote of Latino citizens,” he pointed out.
Coffee vendor Ronny Oropeza, 66, shares the same assessment. “I don’t think anything has improved, quite the opposite, it has gotten worse because the dollar keeps rising,” he lamented.
Oropeza points out that Trump is “poorly informed,” and warned that the reality is that Venezuelans are “economically” “worse off” than in January and politically they do not know “what is going to happen.”
But the Legislative branch, controlled by Chavismo, remains silent and the Rodríguez Administration has sidelined the debate, while maintaining the support of a Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) that is also aligned with it and that legitimized its appointment, avoiding the setting of electoral deadlines and leaving the legal qualification of Maduro’s absence in the hands “of other State bodies”.
Under this scenario, the majority opposition, led by the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, proposed a political negotiation with the Rodríguez government and with the accompaniment of the United States in order to achieve elections.
Rodríguez has not made a statement and people on the street are expectant.
