Name: I travelled Venezuela after Maduro’s capture - here’s what’s really happening | Rare Access
Uploaded: 2026-03-26T16:29:38.000Z
Duration: 10 min 53 s
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To-infinitive

We're just walking up to the viewpoint to have a look at the bay of all the fishing boats here.

What they've given us to read is a presidential magazine: "Mor Maduro, Mor Maduro." He's on every single page.

I'm Ione Wells, I'm the BBC's South America correspondent.

I've been granted a rare 12-day visa to report from inside the country.

It's the first time I've been here in nearly two years.

It's also the first time I've been here since the U.S.

strikes on Venezuela on the 3rd of January, when the U.S. seized its president Nicolás Maduro.

They took him to the U.S. to face drugs and weapons conspiracy charges, which he denies.

This is the first time that I've been here in about two years.

They are now granting these rare journalist visas from time to time, so this is really my chance to report on this country: what's changed, what people want now, if there are hopes for a transition, new elections.

You can see I'm just packing because while I am in Caracas now, my plan is tomorrow to go to a different state in Venezuela called Sucre.

This is one of the poorest states in Venezuela, and the U.S.

is now promising all these big oil-mineral mining deals.

But I'm interested to know if this trickles down to ordinary people, if people think their lives are going to get better.

we're just driving to the airport now to fly to Cúmena on the coast in Sucre.

The city here in Caracas is still plastered with these billboards of Nicolás Maduro and his wife with the hashtag #LosCoremosDeVuelta, essentially.

Just arrived at the domestic airport terminal now, so probably won't be able to film inside the airport.

I'm on the plane now heading to Cúmena, and

what they've given us to read is a presidential magazine, picture of Nicolás Maduro on the front.

Quite a lot of pro-government articles by the looks of it: "Mor Maduro, Mor Maduro." So we've just landed in Sucre, which is one of the poorest states in Venezuela.

It struggles with shortages of fuel, of water.

Here up ahead is a queue for people to fill up their tanks with fuel.

Queues like this happen every single day in the state, and

on both sides you can see it stretching all the way down the road.

We've just stopped at the side of the road here in Sucre, and

there's a lot of people here waiting to pick up big gas canisters.

A woman here said that it's only once per month that they get these deliveries, so it's important that people stock up while they can.

We're just walking up to the viewpoint to have a look at the bay of all the fishing boats here in Huaca.

It's going to be quite a hot climb up here.

¿Cuántos barcos, más o menos, en Huaca?

About 100 boats or so here, he said, in the bay.

Fishmen here have been explaining how difficult life is because of the cost of fuel, which they need for their boats.

One said that a litre is now $2, which on wages here is incredibly expensive.

Somewhere out to sea there in the peninsula is a site that the oil company Shell is going to develop into a huge new gas project.

and Venezuelan government, giving them the green light to go ahead.

And I'm interested to speak to people here in the town of Huaca about whether they think that that will make a difference to the economy here, make a difference to people's lives, given that it's an area that suffers with really high levels of poverty.

By the coast, I got chatting to a fisherman called Pablo Marín.

Here, not a single penny of foreign currency reaches us.

In another country, in Ecuador, a family could make $500 catching 100 kilograms of fish, pay for fuel, and

Here, if you catch 100 kilograms of fish, you have to find another 100 to cover your expenses, so you are left with nothing.

Now you're paid in cash, and it's worth nothing.

This town, Hueria, has been hugely impacted by the U.S. strikes on alleged small drug trafficking vessels.

The strikes in total have now killed more than 150 people.

Washington says that narco-terrorists are on board, but

locals here say that some of those on board were fishermen, were poor labourers in desperate need of money, hired to do these small jobs, even though they're not part of cartel hierarchies.

I'm on the way now to meet the family of one of the men who was killed in a strike in October.

her husband Luis was one of the people allegedly killed in a strike in October last year.

The U.S. still hasn't provided any evidence for the strikes or names of those on board.

It's too hard because he was the breadwinner.

He would go out, bring home the food, the children's things.

The children have heard humours, but they don't accept them.

They were convinced their dad was coming back.

At school, the kids were telling my daughter that her dad was killed in a boat or that he was blown up.

They were in denial about it, saying, "My dad is coming back." But what proof is there from the U.S.

Arrest them, check if they are carrying anything, but don't take their lives.

I also went to meet the brother of another man allegedly killed in a strike in October, who wanted to remain anonymous.

What a fisherman doesn't give him enough to repair an engine, that's why they get involved in that.

this town is suffering from an extreme water crisis at the moment.

People have been without water for about two weeks, and

so there's just nothing coming out of the taps at all, nothing to drink, to wash, for sanitation.

We've just actually tried finding public bathrooms that are open in a mall and restaurants, and

all of them are closed because there's just no running water.

Here, people are waiting to fill up buckets from the existing water supply that there is here in Cúmena, but

Most houses are without running water for sanitation, for washing, for drinking, and

We've just arrived at a little café on the side of the road by a beach, and

the guy's very desperately trying to convince us to eat here and eat his fish that he's just proudly showed us.

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I travelled Venezuela after Maduro’s capture - here’s what’s really happening | Rare Access

potential

stretch

crisis

poverty