Uncertain Tomorrow
With locked shuls and frayed nerves, is there a future for the Jews of Caracas?
There is still a vibrant, full-service kehillah in Venezuela’s capital, But as of last week, the shuls are locked and no one is venturing out. What the future holds for them is anyone’s guess
This past Motzaei Shabbos, the Cohen family went to sleep after the seudah in their home in Caracas, Venezuela, without imagining that they would wake in the middle of the night to a bombing carried out by more than 150 aircraft from the United States Air Force.
“We started hearing the explosions around two in the morning, and not knowing what to do, we went upstairs to our neighbors’ apartment,” Iosef Cohen told Mishpacha (his name has been changed at his request, for security reasons). “Things calmed down around four in the morning, and only then did we go back down to our place,” he said — unaware that at that very moment, Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro, was aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, en route to US territory, after being captured along with his wife, Cilia Flores, in an operation few could have imagined.
On Shabbos morning, there was not a single active minyan in Caracas. All synagogues were closed, and virtually no civilians went out into the streets until Sunday morning, when a few people — including Cohen himself — ventured out to buy basic supplies.
“No one in the community is going out, except to buy whatever they can find,” he said. “It’s more uncertainty than fear — about what might happen next, about how this will continue. People are worried about shortages of food, fuel, basic necessities.”
For years, Venezuela has been slapped with the US’s highest Do Not Travel advisory level, due to severe risks of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure, and where US travelers are advised to hire private security and prepare a will.
As for the Jewish community, which dates back as far as the 17th century, the country’s Jewish population swelled dramatically in the wake of World War II, those numbers rising even more as newcomers from the Middle East and Africa began putting down roots in Venezuela. Thirty years ago, there were well over 20,000 Jews in Venezuela, but that number dropped significantly when an economic crisis, safety concerns, and political instability rocked the region, prompting thousands of Jews to pack up and leave Venezuela for good.
Caracas, though, still has a vibrant Jewish community and an active Chabad, although its building is surrounded by thick walls and there are substantial security measures in place.
The Hebraica Jewish Community Center is the hub of Jewish life in Caracas. In addition to housing the offices of several Jewish communal organizations, multiple eateries, a grocery store, a bakery, a swimming pool, and a tennis court, the Hebraica JCC is also home to three out of four of Caracas’s Jewish schools, which cater to the different segments of the local Jewish community. The city even has a kollel kehillah.
As active as the community installations are, the reality is that most of the young people will likely leave once they reach adulthood, ending up in places like Panama, Mexico, Miami, or Israel. Yet even as its Jewish population continues to shrink, Caracas has remained a vibrant community with a strong infrastructure. A decade ago, when lawlessness reigned supreme in Caracas, Jewish residents were often targeted because it was known that if a Jew is kidnapped, the community will come together with a ransom. Things have been relatively quiet over the last few years, but with the current upheaval, no one is taking bets on how the community will endure.
Old Enemies
Despite Maduro’s capture, Venezuela’s future remains unclear. In a press conference on Saturday that quickly went viral, President Trump said that the United States would “run the country until we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” That would mean dismantling the Chavista machinery that has governed the country for more than 25 years. And while Maduro may have been the figure at the top, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president and told the media that “Nicolás Maduro is the only genuine president of Venezuela.”
Added to this is the question of what role will be played by the powerful interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, and the equally ruthless defense minister and head of the armed forces, Vladimir Padrino López. On this point, the White House was explicit: Cooperate, or face new bombings.
Although tensions between the United States and Venezuela had been escalating week by week since last August, when President Donald Trump’s administration decided to send three Aegis guided-missile destroyers to waters off the Caribbean nation, few imagined that the White House would actually move to capture the Venezuelan leader. Even a few weeks ago, when Mishpacha interviewed members of the Venezuelan Jewish community, the most extreme scenario being discussed was a US airstrike that would force Maduro to relinquish power and negotiate his exit — not an image of the president behind bars.
In 2020, during Trump’s first term, Nicolás Maduro, his wife, his son, and members of his government were indicted by a federal court in Manhattan on charges including narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, possession of military-grade weapons, money laundering, and collaboration with both Mexican and Colombian cartels. At the time, the United States offered a $15 million reward for his arrest. Under the Biden administration, the amount rose to $25 million, and a few months ago Trump doubled it to $50 million — twice what had been offered for the capture of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist responsible for the September 11 attacks. In addition, on July 25, 2025, the US Treasury Department designated the so-called “Cartel de los Soles” as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization. In its statement, the US government said the criminal group was led by Venezuela’s “illegitimate” president, Nicolás Maduro.
Still, it is impossible to ignore Venezuela’s economic potential, rooted in its oil wealth. Trump himself emphasized this repeatedly during the press conference following Maduro’s arrest, making clear that the United States intends to focus on developing Venezuela’s oil resources — a sector that, not coincidentally, has been at the heart of more than 25 years of Chavista control.
The End of Chavismo?
The arrest of Nicolás Maduro could — potentially — mark the collapse of Chavismo. But to understand its origins, one has to go back more than 25 years, to the figure who gave the movement its name: Hugo Chávez. A military officer with an unusually forceful oratory and undeniable charisma, Chávez rose to power through the ballot box in 1998, after having tried — and failing — to seize it by force in a coup attempt in 1992. Trained in the doctrines of Cuban communism, he forged close ties with dictator Fidel Castro and, amid widespread public exhaustion with years of corruption and the neglect of the lower and lower-middle classes, won the presidency with the support of 57 percent of the electorate.
Backed by a system of subsidies financed by the billions of dollars generated by oil, Chávez became the chief financier of what came to be known in Latin America as “Twenty-First-Century Socialism.” Through the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela — better known as PDVSA — he funneled millions into left-wing parties and candidates who, for much of the 21st century, went on to govern in various countries across the region: Néstor and Cristina Kirchner in Argentina, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, to name just a few. Even Spain’s Socialist Party — today in power under Pedro Sánchez and at the time led by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero — is said to have benefited from Venezuelan petrodollars. Many speculate that there is quiet panic among several international leaders at the possibility that Maduro might reveal these connections during his trial.
Another of Chávez’s decisive moves was to align himself with the enemies of his enemy. His constant rhetoric “against the empire” pushed Venezuela into alliances with China, Putin’s Russia, and Iran. In fact, drones used by the Iranian regime are manufactured on Venezuelan soil, and it is well-known that networks of Iranian operatives — with ties to Hezbollah — that carried out terrorist attacks and planned many others in the region managed to enter South America using Venezuelan passports.
A key factor in understanding the expansion of Chávez’s power is the international price of oil. Venezuela possesses the largest proven oil reserves in the world, even surpassing Saudi Arabia. When Chávez took office, a barrel of oil hovered around $18. Within months, it had climbed to $30 and was rising steadily. Not long after, it peaked at $127. This windfall allowed Chavismo to vastly expand the state, keep its base satisfied, and ultimately ensure the movement’s ability to handpick a successor — something Chávez did himself, gravely ill, four months before his death. His choice was his loyal vice president, Nicolás Maduro. Although Maduro enjoyed a brief period of prosperity, the price of oil collapsed during his first year in office — from $103 a barrel to around $50 — bringing down with it the entire structure that depended on it.
The realization that socialism had not delivered tangible improvements to daily life led many in the lower classes to turn away from the government at the polls. What followed was a cycle of electoral fraud, persecution of political opponents — something that had existed under Chávez but intensified under Maduro — repression of the press, and what is likely the largest and least-told humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century: more than eight million Venezuelans forced to leave their country — among them many Jews. The Jewish community, which once numbered around 45,000, shrank to barely 6,000.
Yet for many observers, the breaking point for the international community came with the deeply discredited election of 2024. Maduro sought yet another term and faced Edmundo González, whose running mate was the true driving force of the opposition: María Corina Machado, who was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The gap between the results reported by international monitors and the official figures was staggering. Independent observers gave González and Machado a 65 percent victory, while the “official” count declared Maduro the winner with 52 percent. The farce was so blatant that even allied governments demanded to see the official tally sheets — something that never happened. Some argue that this inability to remove the government from within made US intervention inevitable: The idea that Maduro would ever relinquish power voluntarily was, quite simply, a fantasy.
An Unpredictable Future
“This is clearly the beginning of a transition, but it will not be immediate. It will take a year, a year and a half, maybe two,” said international analyst Fabián Calle, senior fellow at Florida International University’s School of International and Public Affairs and former adviser to Argentina’s Ministry of Defense. “What has fallen is not a dictator in the mold of Saddam Hussein or Pinochet. Maduro has been, rather, a delegate of Cuba, which influenced Hugo Chávez to choose Maduro over Diosdado Cabello, who was the one with real control over Venezuela’s armed forces.”
The same point was underscored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the press conference, when he said — visibly struck by what he had seen — that upon discovering the number of Cuban agents embedded in key positions within Venezuelan intelligence, “Cuba took over Venezuela.”
For Calle, Trump’s major achievement was finding allies within Venezuela’s security forces who were dissatisfied with Maduro’s management.
“This move clearly implies that there is a negotiation process underway with the Venezuelan armed forces. The Trump administration’s biggest win has been giving Venezuela’s military autonomy from Cuban control,” said Calle. Trump himself fueled that interpretation when he surprised reporters by saying, when asked who would be put in power, “We have a lot of fantastic people there, even people within the military.”
This led to one of the more awkward moments of Trump’s press conference, when the president was asked whether he would hand power to the natural leader, María Corina Machado. “I think it would be tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said. “She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country. A very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
As blunt as that comment about Machado sounded — and as much as it was an example of Trump being Trump — it was, in reality, a reassuring message to the military leaderships, who fear ending up in prison: that things will be handled calmly and that a negotiated transition will be sought.
Regional Impact
Trump’s decision came at a moment of clear divisions in South America, something reflected in the reactions of the region’s leaders. While the right-wing presidents, Javier Milei of Argentina and Daniel Noboa of Ecuador, celebrated the fall of the dictator, left-wing leaders such as Brazil’s Lula da Silva, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, and Colombia’s Gustavo Petro questioned the move and accused the United States of interfering in a sovereign nation. Many are now asking whether this could be a first step toward further Trump actions on the continent. Trump himself added to that speculation when he said at the press conference that Colombia’s president, Petro, “has factories where he makes cocaine, and they are sending it to the US,” advising him, pointedly, to be careful.
Even so, Calle considers it unlikely that the White House would attempt an operation in Colombia. “Petro is already leaving in May; his figure doesn’t represent much anymore, and it’s most likely that the opposition candidate will win the elections there. In addition, the United States has a very fluid relationship with Colombia’s armed forces and with the rest of the security forces and intelligence services.”
What Calle did emphasize, however, was the need to watch closely how Washington handles Mexico. “Mexico is a very sensitive case, because a great deal of fentanyl and cocaine passes through there. But Trump has to be smart, because any heavy-handed move would only fuel Mexican nationalism — and that helps President Sheinbaum.”
(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1094)
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