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As diplo­mat­ic ten­sions in­ten­si­fy be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela, fu­elled by sanc­tions, mil­i­tary pos­tur­ing and in­creas­ing­ly sharp rhetoric, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Derek Ram­samooj says the re­al­i­ty on the ground in Venezuela tells a very dif­fer­ent sto­ry, one not de­fined by fear or un­cer­tain­ty, but by Christ­mas lights and sea­son­al cel­e­bra­tion.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day af­ter a re­cent re­turn from Cara­cas, where he par­tic­i­pat­ed in Venezuela’s Peo­ple’s As­sem­bly for Sov­er­eign­ty and Peace of our Amer­i­ca: Venezuela Chap­ter 2025, Ram­samooj said de­spite the grow­ing hos­til­i­ty sur­round­ing re­cent US ac­tions, Venezue­lan cit­i­zens are not liv­ing in a state of alarm.

“In their malls, the en­tire pop­u­la­tion was fo­cused on Christ­mas, on shop­ping, on fam­i­lies as the case may be, so there was not this ten­sion no­tice­ably in the pub­lic space. The con­flict is on­ly at the po­lit­i­cal rhetoric and lead­er­ship lev­el, in terms of the cour­te­sies and hos­pi­tal­i­ty and warmth of the peo­ple, that was clear­ly ev­i­dent as there were no chal­lenges, like a tourist, walk­ing the streets, hav­ing a meal, or go­ing to shop, there was no hos­til­i­ty among the peo­ple.”