The Daily Populous Saturday January 3rd, 2026 day edition
Authored by bbc.co.uk and submitted by pompokopouch

Apprehension on the streets of Caracas

Nicole Kolster, BBC Mundo correspondent in Caracas

In Caracas, there is apprehension in the streets. People barely speak out, but there are queues in pharmacies and supermarkets.

WhatsApp groups are bursting with messages and videos, while people in the streets of Eastern Caracas are mostly silent.

“Do you know what happened?” a woman asks me in a low voice outside a plaza. She went out to get medicine for her nerves but found the 24-hour pharmacy closed.

“Please don’t record me,” she asks. A strong smell, reminding me of tear gas - so familiar from the famous protests of 2017 - seeps through my window.

I’m in a high-rise building, in the eastern part of the capital, Caracas. My mother notices it too.

Earlier, on the balconies of nearby buildings, there was an outburst of euphoria minutes after a message began circulating on social media from President Donald Trump announcing the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

But the shouts lasted only seconds.

A supermarket that also operates 24-hours kept its shutters down for most of the morning, with a line of people waiting for it to open.

TonkaHeroDreamCake on January 3rd, 2026 at 09:05 UTC »

I feel like it gives China an excuse to attack Taiwan

Magicalsandwichpress on January 3rd, 2026 at 08:48 UTC »

Potentially a tougher nut than Panama or Nicaragua, Trump's hopping the Venezuelans would do the hard lifting given enough incentives.

Being deep within US spheres of influence, I am not expecting intercession from world powers. Trump should have ample time to put the screws in, rather than rushing into a full invasion.

Venezuelan's been shipping well below its historical level of 1 million bpd for a while now, it's US export has been steady but export to China and the rest of the world have been gradually chocked off since July. With the world still in oversupply, I don't see this being an immediate issue.

Two_Pickachu_One_Cup on January 3rd, 2026 at 08:19 UTC »

To answer your question, yes it probably will go up in the short term. However oil supply is incredibly controlled and complex, the big oil players could decide to "release" oil that they have in their reserves into the market to bring prices down. Remember many countries such as the US have strategic reserves which they can use to influence the price when they want.

On a geopolitical level what is likely happening here is that the US is trying to either force a regime change or force Venuzula's oil reserves into its orbit.

Venezuela mostly trades with China with its oil and this could be a play to firstly cut vital oil away from china and secondly pre-emptively stop China's influence over Venezuela.

Authoritarian regimes are on the move asserting their interests and mobilising their armies. The USA needs to catchup or it will be on the Blackfoot if a major war breaks out (I.e Taiwan and China). The US is also trying to expand its influence against the Taiwan/China, Russia/Ukraine backdrop.