Nicholas: the originis a miniseries about the only possible Nicolás in a Venezuela troubled. Maduro. The beginning of the second season of this ode to the president premiered at the end of November at the Fundación Casa de las Letras de Andrés Bello, in Caracas. And since the first chapter is the length of a film, it will be projected on screens in the 5,336 communal circuits so that citizens can “debate” about the life of the former bus driver who arrived at the Miraflores Palace. “This is a love story; life has given us so many things to see and experience. There are direct images of the time that made me cry,” said Maduro, seeing himself so brave, determined and predestined. The evening of official culture offered the sensation of a life without alterations without anxiety. Venezuelans feel, however, gripped, waiting for something they don’t really know what, and what they glimpse or imagine is not auspicious. They know the reasons, regardless of how they position themselves on the growing threats from the United States. The “origin” of his fears is what will happen to “Nicolás”.
Waiting has become the national verb that regulates activities and emotions. Will Donald Trump and Maduro speak? Did they talk and has everything been said? Is a new lethal phase of the anti-drug trafficking operation called Lanza del Sur being prepared? Since the beginning of September, the US military forces They have bombed at least 21 boats and have caused the death of at least 83 people. “We will also begin to stop them on land,” Trump said, and those words, which can be refuted or hardened, depending on the volatile mood of the Republican magnate, cause sting in Caracas or the coastal areas of the southern Caribbean where a powerful naval force is deployed. A chill that cannot be expressed because, as an official slogan that has been printed on hats emphasizes, “to doubt is to betray.”
Maduro’s polls
The head of state speaks of a Casablanca hoax similar to that of Iraq in 2003 to keep the country’s wealth. He has summoned millions of citizens to the militias. Weapons in hand, they must expect the worst. The Armed Forces adopted the “war of all the people” model that Cuba designed decades ago taking as a model the Vietnamese experience in its war with the United States. The exercises and rituals, the parades and marches, the declarations of fidelity and the call for unredeemed courage, mark the hours and days since the first air attack.
“Everyone flies, a thousand eyes. Let no one fall asleep!”Maduro asked Venezuelans on Thursday night. “If we have to rise up, we will do so and we would have a destiny of triumph and dignity”. The “worker president” has assured that a 94% of Venezuelans reject a possible US attack and 82% of those consulted by a company that makes “highly professional measurements” are “willing” to fight. “We have reached a great national consensus that is the support for the union of the entire nation.” Ordinary men and women do not refute these figures, nor do they endorse them. Heads are filled with ghosts and daily challenges. They just wait.
Queues at a cinema in Caracas to see the premiere of the series ‘Nicolás’ allusive to the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, on November 21. / MIGUEL GUTIÉRREZ / EFE
Militarization by sea and air
Meanwhile, the Caribbean is becoming more militarized. Washington will “provisionally” use two airports in the Dominican Republic as part of its Southern Lance. Treat It has also received North American pressure, disguised as bilateral cooperation in the fight against “narco terrorists.” The Venezuelan Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino Lópezspoke of “gentleman” governments that “lend themselves to the imperialist game.” The feeling of imminence in the face of the unknown, although glimpsed, has presented new scenes for days, such as those at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, almost empty due to the cancellation of numerous international flights. That anxiety increased on Saturday when Trump asked airlines to consider Venezuelan airspace “completely closed.”
Divided opposition
The opposition is also waiting. He hopes to find a minimum point of agreement in the face of an unpredictable situation. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, has not hidden her support for Trump’s roadmap and, in particular, his Secretary of State, Marco Rubiowho expresses the most intransigent positions on the Venezuelan issue. “The last hours of the Maduro regime are bloody and dark, as was its arrival.”said the right-wing leader. Not all the anti-Madurism assumes as its own the White House’s story about the implications of the Miraflores Palace in illegal drug trafficking and the existence of the Cartel of the Suns, with the president at the head. They may hate it, but they know that much of the cocaine goes through other routes. The same as him fentanyl. And although they have long considered that the “origin” of the Venezuelan political problem is Nicolás, they do not welcome a military outcome of the long crisis due to its disastrous consequences.
The elected deputy of the National Assembly (AN) and two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles He asked Machado without naming her to play a role other than that of agitator of the disaster. “Don’t you think that the best thing is to influence or try to influence what the agenda of a communication, of a face to face, of a US-Venezuela negotiation process would be?” And he remarked: “The armed confrontation to which some appeal from their comfort, is a door that you open, but you do not know how it closes, or when. “War is the failure of politics.”. First Justicia, the party that Capriles had founded and from which he was expelled, accused him of being an accomplice of the Government. “We warn that aligning with Maduro and the Aragua Train in the face of accusations of transnational crime made by the US and countries in the region, reflects political behavior incompatible with any democratic project.”
Little traffic at the Simón Bolívar international airport, in Maiquetía (Venezuela) after the decision of the Venezuelan authorities to revoke the flight concession to six foreign airlines. / MIGUEL GUTIÉRREZ / EFE
Inflation and the dollar
Venezuelans wait for signs in the air and expect news every day when they don’t know what they are going to eat. An estimated 4.4 million people need food assistance, especially minors, according to a survey by the HumVenezuela platform carried out in August, before the airstrikes began. A 39.2% of households spend their savings to buy food, 43.1% borrow “food” and 46.2% purchase products on credit.
According to the Central Bank, GDP increased by 8.71% in the third quarter of 2025 thanks to oil. ECLAC predicts that the year will end with an improvement of six points. “Venezuela is growing with its own lungs, breaking oil dependence,” Maduro said days ago. The monetary authority is reluctant to present numbers on the evolution of prices that have skyrocketed rapidly in line with the tensions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected inflation of 548% in 2025 and 629% in 2026. In an economy dollarized in fact for at least two years, The North American banknote is, also in reality, the main daily destabilizing factor. At the end of 2024, 52 bolivars were needed to acquire one dollar. Last week, each dollar cost 240 bolivars. On the street they expect corn flour to cost the same as it did two days before. There are so many waits that you’ve already lost count..
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