Explosions jolted Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, with young Venezuelan content creator Yoelvin Pena describing blasts outside his home and voicing fears over food shortages and safety as U.S. strikes rattled the capital.
Pena recalled the blasts shaking the street outside his home, a shock he had never lived through before.
"More than 10 explosions. And we also heard the air raid sirens," he said.
He emphasized that for ordinary Venezuelans like him, the strikes were a shocking new reality.
"I have nothing to do with politics. I don't want to get involved in that. I'm a content creator from Venezuela, I'm stuck here, but I do believe this was unnecessary. I think better terms could have been reached. There's been so much talk about this already, but for us Venezuelans, this is new, very new. We always look for the calmest way to resolve things," Pena said.
The content creator stressed that his greatest concerns now center on food and safety.
"After all this, Venezuela is going to be paralyzed. What worries me is finding food, staying safe, and staying home," Pena said.
The U.S. military launched a series of attacks against Venezuela early Saturday morning, reportedly capturing President Nicolas Maduro and flying him out of the country.
Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, speaking on a state-run television station, said the whereabouts of Maduro and his wife are unknown, asking for proof they are alive.
The U.S. military action against the South American nation has drawn widespread international condemnation, with multiple countries calling for a coordinated global response.
Caracas content creator voices fears over food shortages, safety amid US strikes
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Sunday launched new year military training across all units, with forces from the army, navy, air force, rocket force, and armed police conducting intensive combat-oriented exercises to boost battlefield readiness.
On the first training day, a brigade of the Army's 79th Group Army conducted integrated combat-oriented training at an outdoor training ground. The troops continuously executed over 10 individual and squad training subjects from the training outline, focusing on enhancing their battlefield adaptability and response capabilities.
Naval forces were also active. Along the coast of the Yellow Sea, the Navy's Type 055 guided-missile destroyer Nanchang, in coordination with destroyer Xining, missile frigate Weifang, and other destroyers and frigates, carried out subjects such as naval gunnery landborne and seaborne target practices, and live firing of anti-frogman lethal rounds. They also conducted fleet air defense exercises in coordination with naval aviation, testing the troops' ability to transition from training to combat.
"Now, there is more combat-oriented training that involves the full process and all elements, aligning with future naval warfare. Whether it's basic training or coordinated training, it is no longer single-subject, single-ship, or single-platform. Now it is system-wide linkage, integration of war and training, and multi-subject fusion, testing the combat effectiveness of the ships under complex conditions," said Fang Wanhao, an officer with a destroyer flotilla of the PLA Navy.
The Air Force, involving multiple branches such as aviation, surface-to-air missile, and radar troops, conducted joint training exercises with multiple aircraft types in realistic battlefield environments to hone their combat skills. The Joint Logistics Support Force's motor transport brigade focused on difficult and critical subjects related to transport and support under extreme cold conditions. By fully integrating real combat scenarios and setting up complex emergency situations, the training aimed to enhance the officers' and soldiers' emergency response capabilities in extreme environments.
On the first training day of the new year, officers and soldiers of the People's Armed Police Yunnan Corps conducted specialized, intensive training for subjects including emergency rescue and counter-terrorism capture and annihilation, adhering to a combat-oriented training philosophy.
The Rocket Force deployed its units across multiple routes and positions, setting up formations on various training grounds. They simultaneously conducted combat-oriented training on difficult and critical subjects such as cross-regional maneuver and rapid fire assault, promoting the efficient integration of personnel with weapons and equipment, and the information network system.
"For the new year's training, we will focus on hard and intensive training closely aligned with operational missions. We will strengthen adversarial testing at extreme boundaries and in complex environments, enhance the support of technological means, and forge the superior skills to be one second faster and one move better than the enemy. We will truly achieve readiness at all times and the ability to fight at any moment, ensuring new breakthroughs in improving the level of combat-oriented training readiness," said Li Zhiyong, a PLA Rocket Force officer.
Chinese People's Liberation Army opens 2026 training season to boost combat readiness
