More freedom of speech, but system ’still authoritarian, just operating in a different way,’ said one Venezuelan.
Since U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuelans have been seeing some rights return to the socialist country, such as freedom of speech, sources told The Epoch Times. This is despite the fact that top leaders from the same oppressive regime remain in power.
“Everyone is feeling that we are getting some freedom,” said 21-year-old Jacobo Malkhasian, who lives in the capital city of Caracas. “We’re getting some rights … some possibilities to now have free speech.”
Other aspects of daily life, such as high inflation, have yet to see improvements after the overnight U.S. operation to capture former Venezuelan leader Maduro on Jan. 3, Malkhasian said.
The Epoch Times spoke to several Venezuelans living in their home country and expats in the United States who expressed gratitude for President Donald Trump and the U.S. military. They said a sense of relief has settled over the South American country in the past few months.
However, achieving a lasting, peaceful, and free society in Venezuela could take years because of what they described as a population with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Freedom of Speech Returns
Prior to Maduro’s capture, there was no real news coverage or sense of freedom of speech in Venezuela, multiple sources explained.
“[Maduro] took control of what the media says, and if the media didn’t say what he wanted, he destroyed,” Malkhasian said. “The news in Venezuela always was [an] alternate reality—the Chavista reality.”
Chavistas are supporters of Chavismo, a political ideology named after the late Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor.
Media coverage in Venezuela before Maduro’s capture reflected Russia as a necessary ally and the United States as an enemy, said Malkhasian, who works with a student political opposition group called UNION at the Central University of Venezuela.
Malkhasian described his type of work as difficult and dangerous up until Maduro’s capture.
“If you talk, you go to jail. If you make any discussions that get the government uncomfortable, you go to jail—you disappear,” he said.
News coverage has noticeably become more balanced, Malkhasian said, reflecting the true state of Venezuela and the hardships the population has endured for years under a socialist regime—not just broadcasting the “Chavista reality.”
The Epoch Times spoke with another Venezuelan man, 32, who works as a salesman in Caracas. He wished to remain anonymous due to what he described as an “unclear” situation under the remaining regime leadership. However, he said people now feel they can voice their opinions without risk of political prosecution or retaliation from the regime.
He recalled a time when he posted a photo online that he said the regime wouldn’t care for, and one of his friends, who works in a Venezuelan police force, warned him he should take it down or risk being taken to jail.
That doesn’t happen anymore, he said. It’s one of the biggest changes he’s noticed since Maduro’s capture.
“People are expressing themselves with the utmost liberty,” he said. “They’re not really afraid of being taken to jail or being prosecuted because of what they say online.”
By Troy Myers
