The Venezuelan National Press Workers’ Union (SNTP) denounced on Monday that socialist Venezuelan forces apprehended 14 journalists, 13 of them working with international news agencies, amid the installment of longtime chavista loyalist Delcy Rodríguez as “president.”
Rodríguez, officially the “vice president” of the rogue regime, took over after the United States successfully executed an operation to arrest the country’s socialist dictator, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife and “first combatant” Cilia Flores on Saturday. Maduro and Flores both face a litany of criminal charges in the United States associated with Maduro’s alleged role as the head of the Cartel de los Soles, a cocaine-trafficking syndicate run through the Venezuelan military.
Following the operation, President Donald Trump announced the United States would essentially “run” Venezuela until Rodríguez could organize a free and fair election. Rodríguez initially appeared on national television delivering an incensed tirade against the United States, but later published a statement inviting Washington “to work together on a cooperation agenda.”
While she was being inaugurated illegitimately into the presidency — Maduro stole the 2018 and 2024 elections, thus he and his administration are not constitutionally in power — the SNTP revealed that state security thugs were ensuring that independent journalists could not cover the situation on the ground in the country following the extraction of Maduro. According to a message the union published on social media, state security disappeared 14 journalists on Monday. During their apprehension, the outlet reported, authorities banned the journalists from live transmission, recording, or taking photos in and around the legislature, where Rodríguez was being sworn in. The ceremony was broadcast on “Telesur,” a Latin American leftist propaganda outlet funded by various Marxist governments in the region, primarily Venezuela.
The journalist union revealed that at least three of the journalists detained were whisked away by the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), rather than law enforcement. Its report indicated that the military agents forced the journalists to allow the regime to inspect all their electronic communications devices, apparently seeking any information that would indicate opposition to socialism.
By Monday night, the SNTP reported that all 14 journalists had been freed. While 13 of them were associated with international outlets, one was deported, while the other 13 were reportedly allowed to stay in Venezuela, presumably without the right to freedom of the press.
SNTP noted that it has information that another 23 journalists remain behind bars in Venezuela unjustly from the Maduro era, demanding their liberation. These journalists are some of the hundreds of political prisoners the chavista regime is believed to maintain, many of them in the “Helicoide” torture chamber known for electrocutions, crucifixions, and other atrocities.
“Journalism in Venezuela is exercised in a hostile environment for the press, with dozens of judicial instruments prepared to punish the word, especially the laws against ‘hate,’ ‘fascism,’ and ‘against the blockade,'” SNTP said in a statement, according to the Venezuelan outlet Runrunes. “This content is being published in consideration of the threats and limits which, in consequence, have been imposed on the divulgation of information from within the country.”
While Venezuelans in the diaspora around the world took to the streets by the thousands on Saturday to celebrate the American arrests of Maduro and Flores, Venezuela’s major cities have remained largely silent as a result of the culture of fear instilled by the socialists. Venezuelans speaking to Breitbart News from the country on Monday, albeit anonymously out of fear of retribution from the regime, described attempting to maintain the flow of a normal work week routine and staying out of the way of state security forces given the sensitivity of the current situation. They noted that the regime claimed Maduro signed a decree imposing a state of emergency on the country shortly before his arrest, which would empower the oppression of suspected dissidents even further.
Venezuelan victims of the Maduro regime have called for the arrest of the remaining socialist inner circle to ensure the freedom of the nation’s people. In a message published on Saturday, the Organization of Politically Persecuted Venezuelans in Exile (VEPPEX), a group that represents former political prisoners, described the need for arresting Rodríguez, her brother and head legislator Jorge Rodríguez, and other senior members of the regime.
“We cannot consider this a definitive victory while key figures in the regime remain free or unaccountable,” VEPPEX president José Antonio Colina wrote, naming the Rodríguez brothers along with head regime thug Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López as the main threats to the country.
“Their freedom represents a persistent threat to peace and democracy in Venezuela, as well as regional security,” Colina asserted.
Cabello, in an apparent attempt to affirm this concern, appeared on the streets of Caracas on Monday night, armed and calling for the destruction of “traitors.”
@diosdadopsuv Desde Caricuao #venezuela en total normalidad
“Loyal always — Traitors never!” Cabello and a team of regime thugs chanted in a video posted to TikTok.
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