Venezuela broadcasts messages of resistance from Maduro loyalists after the U.S. attack.

Venezuela's population is around 28.4 to 29.9 million, with recent estimates for 2024/2025 placing it near 28.4 million (World Health Org, FRED) or even higher, with some projections for 2025 nearing 30 million, showing slight variations depending on the source and specific year, but generally hovering around the 28-29 million mark.

 

    2023: ~28.3 million

    2024: ~28.4 million

    2025 (estimate): Around 29.9 million (Macrotrends), or 28.5 million (Worldometer), or ~34.4 million (Britannica, potentially high projection).

 

The population is largely urban (around 88-89%) and concentrated in the northern and western highlands.

 

While the United States possesses overwhelming conventional military superiority, launching a war against Venezuela, a nation of nearly 30 million people, would be highly dangerous due to the significant risks of sparking a costly and prolonged asymmetric conflict/insurgency, triggering a major humanitarian and refugee crisis, causing widespread regional destabilization, and facing significant domestic and international political and legal opposition.

 

Key Dangers for the US

 

    Asymmetric Warfare and Insurgency: The Venezuelan military, while weak in conventional battle, is expected to shift to asymmetric tactics (guerrilla warfare) in the event of a US ground invasion. This would involve blending into the civilian population and using urban ambushes and sabotage to make a post-invasion occupation a "costly, uncertain, and politically explosive gamble". The country's large size and complex topography would aid such resistance, and armed groups like the ELN, FARC dissidents, and local "colectivos" could further complicate state-building efforts.

    Humanitarian and Refugee Crisis: Venezuela is already experiencing one of the world's largest displacement crises due to its ongoing socioeconomic collapse. A war would exacerbate this, potentially doubling the number of refugees and migrants (already over 7 million) and overwhelming neighboring countries like Colombia and Brazil. This would pose a significant challenge to regional stability and US interests.

    Regional Destabilization: A US invasion would likely be met with strong opposition from many nations in the region and could spur greater instability across Latin America. Other nations, including Russia and China, may see the action as a violation of international law, potentially leading to increased geopolitical tensions. US facilities and citizens in the region could become targets of spontaneous aggression or retaliatory acts.

    Political and Legal Consequences: Any large-scale ground operation would likely face major domestic political hurdles, including congressional pushback and the shadow of the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unilateral military action without UN authorization would also be considered illegal under international law, inviting global condemnation and potentially eroding the international legal order.

    Economic Costs: A prolonged conflict would involve massive financial investment from the US government. Furthermore, a state collapse in Venezuela could unsettle global energy and food markets, creating broader economic problems.

 

In short, while the US military would likely win any conventional engagement swiftly, the true danger lies in the long-term consequences of managing a broken nation of 30 million people that is actively resisting occupation, a scenario that experts warn would be "a disaster".

 

Venezuela has established alliances with nations like Russia, Iran, and China, from whom it has reportedly acquired some drone technology, though the effectiveness of this is unclear.

 

“Hours after President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured by U.S. forces, Venezuela’s state-run television was broadcasting rallies and protests taking place across several cities, including the capital, Caracas. Mr. Maduro’s supporters vowed to defend their country from what they described as an illegal attack and the kidnapping of their “legitimate” leader.

 

In interviews, residents and people close to Mr. Maduro’s government demanded the Trump administration to return him and the country’s first lady, Cilia Flores, safely to Venezuela.

 

The messages were broadcast entirely on state-run media programs. A free press does not exist in Venezuela because of years of government suppression and censorship.

 

Some people condemned the U.S. airstrikes that accompanied the capture of Mr. Maduro as a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. Others were taking more direct action.

In neighborhoods across Caracas and other cities, Venezuelans were seen in bulletproof vests activating local defense committees — groups essentially designed to turn every citizen into a soldier and every city block into a fortress.

 

“Everybody knows what they have to do,” said Pedro Infante, a high-ranking Venezuelan politician, as he was surrounded by supporters in a district of Miranda, one of the states hit overnight. “Prepare ourselves to defend our homeland and our sovereignty.”

 

Mr. Infante, who has been a central figure in both the legislative and executive branches under the governments of Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, accused the United States of wanting to steal Venezuela’s resources — specifically the country’s oil.

 

“Their fundamental interest is to gain control over our energy and resources” and “to have all the puppet governments on their knees,” he added.

 

Mr. Trump has said on several occasions that Venezuela stole oil and land belonging to the United States — referring to the nationalization of oil fields during which U.S. giants like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips lost assets.

 

In a rally near the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Jorge Luis Márquez, a local resident, told a state-run television program that he was startled in the early morning by the explosions, which he called a “criminal bombing” orchestrated by President Trump.

 

“The people here are outraged and demand that the world speak out against this crime committed by Donald Trump’s dirty, rotten boot, which trampled on sacred ground,” Mr. Márquez said.

 

By Saturday morning, Venezuelan authorities were claiming that some of the bombs had struck civilian buildings.

 

In a televised address from La Guaira, the capital city of a coastal state hit overnight by the U.S. airstrikes, Gov. José Alejandro Terán condemned what he called a “terrorist action by the United States government,” adding that civilians had been targeted. He did not mention any deaths but said that several people, including women and children, had been sent to the region’s hospitals and clinics.

 

Mr. Terán also said that the city’s historic center had been attacked and that “more than 10 missiles” had destroyed several warehouses at the port — arguably Venezuela’s most strategically vital maritime hub — where, he claimed, important medicines for patients with renal failure were stored.

 

“There is nothing left to prove to the entire world,” Mr. Terán said. “There has been a systematic attack to the civilian population.”

 

In a live broadcast from Caracas, Erika Farías, a political organizer and a member of Mr. Maduro’s party, warned both the United States and the Venezuelan opposition that she and many others would not give in despite the attack on Saturday.

 

“To the empire, we say: Venezuela’s oil is ours, and return Nicolás Maduro to us,” Ms. Farías said. “And to the stateless traitors, we say: Prepare yourselves, because the people have just moved from unarmed struggle to armed struggle — and we are going to defend our freedom, our independence and our sovereignty in the streets.”” [1]

 

1. Venezuela broadcasts messages of resistance from Maduro loyalists after the U.S. attack. Emiliano Rodríguez Mega.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Jan 3, 2026.