Breaking: US Military Launches Operation Absolute Resolve Against Venezuela

A Midnight Attack Shakes Caracas to Its Core

In the predawn darkness of Saturday, January 3rd, Caracas residents were jolted from their sleep by the unmistakable sound of bombs raining from the sky. Operation Absolute Resolve had begun.

The attack targeted 11 military installations across Caracas and three additional states, marking a dramatic escalation in US-Venezuela tensions that would send shockwaves through the Western Hemisphere.

“Is This an Earthquake?”

For Marina G., a resident of La Carlota—a neighborhood bordering the targeted air base—the first moments of chaos unfolded with terrifying confusion. “My first thought was earthquake,” she recounted, describing how the walls, floors, and windows of her second-story apartment trembled violently. Her cat scrambled for cover, disappearing for hours, while neighborhood dogs erupted into frenzied barking.

But the persistent drone of military aircraft flying unusually low over the city, combined with the surreal sight of cadets fleeing the Army headquarters in T-shirts and shorts, signaled something far more ominous than seismic activity.

The Information Blackout

What followed exposed a chilling reality about information warfare in authoritarian states. Marina’s attempts to understand what was happening revealed a disturbing truth: in Venezuela, even during a military assault on your own city, you cannot trust traditional media.

The government-controlled Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) continued broadcasting its scheduled programming—a report on the culture minister’s diplomatic visit to Russia—while bombs fell on Caracas. Television sets remained silent. Radio waves carried only state-approved narratives.

Her cell phone became her lifeline, though even that connection felt tenuous. WhatsApp messages flooded in: “They’re bombing Caracas!” The digital grapevine had become the only reliable source of information.

The Death of Independent Journalism

The absence of professional reporting wasn’t merely an oversight—it was the culmination of systematic destruction. Years of government harassment, censorship, imprisonment of journalists, and the complete dismantling of independent media infrastructure had created what experts now call “the information desert.”

Empty newsrooms stood as monuments to vanished press freedom. Resources had been decimated. The security risks for journalists attempting to document the crisis were simply too great. The result? No independent team could venture into the streets to record the unfolding catastrophe in real-time.

Living in Digital Fear

The paranoia gripping Venezuelan journalists reflected a broader national trauma. Citizens lived with the constant threat of arbitrary detention, imprisonment without cause, torture, and extortion. This climate of fear had fundamentally altered daily behavior.

Digital survival tactics became second nature. Citizens learned to restrict chats, move sensitive materials to hidden folders, and automatically delete “compromising” messages. Many adopted the practice of leaving cell phones at home entirely when venturing out. Those who couldn’t bear to be disconnected learned to purge their devices before leaving: deleting photos, stickers, and memes that could be interpreted as subversive.

This collective digital paranoia, while born of oppression, had paradoxically created a resilient information network that kept citizens connected despite the dictatorship’s best efforts.

Citizen Journalism in the Crossfire

As bombs fell, the first videos emerged not from professional newsrooms but from ordinary citizens. People recorded explosions from their windows and balconies. Beachgoers celebrating the New Year captured the aerial assault from coastal vantage points. Even hikers camping at the summit of Cerro Ávila in Waraira Repano National Park managed to capture panoramic footage of bombs exploding over the Caracas Valley.

These citizen journalists became the primary sources of information, their videos circulating rapidly through social networks before international media could confirm the events.

The Connectivity Challenge

The crisis exposed Venezuela’s digital divide with brutal clarity. In San Rafael de Mucuchíes, a tranquil Andean village in Mérida state, a group of hikers found themselves at 10,300 feet above sea level, struggling with intermittent internet access while trying to follow events unfolding hundreds of miles away.

Their information came through traditional telephone calls via operators like Movistar (Telefónica) and Digitel, not through WhatsApp or social media. One traveler’s foresight—packing a portable Starlink satellite internet antenna from SpaceX—proved crucial. During the crisis, SpaceX provided the service free to Venezuelans, offering a rare technological lifeline in a moment of profound isolation.

The Aftermath

The attack on January 3rd represented more than a military operation—it exposed the fragility of information ecosystems under authoritarian control and the remarkable resilience of citizens determined to stay informed despite overwhelming odds.

As the dust settled over Caracas, questions remained about the long-term implications of Operation Absolute Resolve, the future of Venezuela’s information landscape, and whether the digital survival tactics developed under dictatorship could translate into tools for eventual democratic renewal.

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