I’ve covered Venezuela for a decade. But this US visit was like nothing I’ve seen before

Stefano Pozzebon

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There’s a new buzz, an optimism that, to be frank, I have never seen before.

I moved to Caracas in 2016.

In the decade that followed, Venezuela saw it all: a quarter of the population fled a catastrophic economic collapse; crime rates exploded before gradually yielding in the aftermath of COVID-19; anti-Maduro demonstrators took to the streets year after year only to be overpowered by tear gas and rubber bullets.

Yet throughout it all, Maduro ruled on, seemingly unmovable.

Working in Caracas as a foreign correspondent during the most turbulent months of 2019, I often thought of this quote from the Italian novel “The Leopard” about the conquest of Sicily in the 19th century: “Everything must change for everything to remain the same.”