‘Feels like an illusion’: inside post-Maduro Venezuela’s bewildering new era

<p>Four months after Trump’s surprise raid, a political thaw has descended – but mingled with hope is trepidation for what comes next</p><p>When Ángel Linares heard a strange buzz followed by an explosion, his first thought was that neighbours were setting off fireworks to celebrate the new year.</p><p>Then his windows shattered, the building’s walls shook and its facade was ripped off, sending him flying on to the ground of an apartment suddenly reduced to rubble. His 85-year-old mother, Jesucita, feared Venezuela’s northern coast had been devastated by an earthquake, like the one she remembers from 1967.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/may/17/feels-like-an-illusion-how-trump-seizing-maduro-has-changed-little-in-venezuela">Continue reading...</a>