AFP, Colombia

Real change has not come to Venezuela despite Maduro’s ouster as president and the armed forces remain loyal to the regime: that was the blunt assessment Monday of former security operatives living in exile.

Last weekend, from the Colombian-Venezuelan border, Williams Cancino watched the spectacular US snatch-and-grab of his ex-boss and president.

He hoped it could be the beginning of freedom for Venezuela, after a quarter century of repression, economic depression and one-party rule.

But if things are to really change, first “a new high command is needed” in the country’s powerful security services, he told AFP on Monday.

“The top brass are totally loyal to the regime,” said Cancino, who until his defection in 2019 was an officer in Venezuela’s police and the Special Action Forces, which are often used to crack down on dissent.

Through flawed elections and mass protests, they helped Maduro’s government to survive.

Meanwhile, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Monday that close to 200 military personnel entered Caracas. “Nearly 200 of our greatest Americans went downtown in Caracas… and grabbed an indicted individual wanted by American justice, in support of law enforcement, without a single American killed,” Hegseth said.