Armed militias loyal to ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro are terrorising the streets of Caracas, setting up roadblocks to hunt Americans and their alleged sympathisers in a dramatic escalation of violence following the January 3 US military raid that extracted the authoritarian leader to face narco-terrorism charges in New York.

The State Department issued an urgent security alert on January 10 ordering Americans to "leave the country immediately" as international flights resumed, warning that groups known as colectivos, motorcycle gangs notorious for enforcing Chavista rule through intimidation and violence, have established checkpoints across the capital where paramilitaries examine vehicles and electronic devices for any evidence linking occupants to the United States or President Donald Trump.

"There are reports of groups of armed militias, known as colectivos, setting up roadblocks and searching vehicles for evidence of US citizenship or support for the United States," the State Department warned. "US citizens in Venezuela should remain vigilant and exercise caution when travelling by road."

Media reports and activist accounts describe armed paramilitaries operating checkpoints throughout Caracas, with reports indicating that colectivos halt motorists to inspect personal belongings and electronic devices for signs of American ties. Major routes from Caracas toward the Colombian border now bristle with numerous security cordons established by military and police forces, prompting Bogotá to issue similar travel warnings for Colombian citizens.

Venezuela maintains the State Department's highest threat classification, Level 4: Do Not Travel, due to "severe risks to Americans, including wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure."

The colectivos represent one of the most volatile elements in Venezuela's post-Maduro power structure. They are armed civilian groups with deep ideological commitment to Chavismo who operate outside formal military command whilst maintaining close ties to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, the regime's brutal enforcer who controls intelligence services accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity.

Reuters reported last week that the Trump administration warned Cabello that defiance could bring consequences matching those visited upon Maduro, yet simultaneously acknowledged that targeting him risks provoking colectivos into precisely the violent action now unfolding across Caracas. The motorcycle gangs' autonomous operation is a sign that either Cabello is encouraging resistance to American intervention or that the interim government led by acting president Delcy Rodríguez cannot control forces whose loyalty runs deeper than institutional hierarchy.

Frightened residents have retreated indoors as armed motorcycle gangs patrol neighbourhoods on roaring bikes, weapons slung across their backs, whilst streets empty of normal traffic. Many households have reportedly chosen to stay put rather than risk street encounters as the capital slips toward chaos that the White House's stabilisation strategy was designed to prevent.

Venezuela's foreign ministry rejected Washington's warnings as "based on fabricated claims," asserting in a statement that the country maintains "absolute calm, peace, and stability" with "all weapons of the Republic...under the control of the Bolivarian Government."

Yet that assertion clashes with last week’s reports of heavy gunfire near the presidential palace, with security personnel firing at aerial objects later identified as Venezuelan military aircraft on surveillance missions.

The colectivo rampage exposes the precarious position of Rodríguez's interim administration, which must simultaneously accommodate American demands for cooperation whilst maintaining credibility before hard-line Chavistas including the very paramilitaries now hunting Americans in Caracas streets.

Maduro's son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, called on supporters to "pour into the streets" and demonstrate strength following his father's capture. "You will see us in the streets. You will see a united people," he vowed, explicitly encouraging the mobilisation now threatening American citizens and undermining the stability Washington considers essential for facilitating US oil companies' access to Venezuelan reserves.

The violence erupted as Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined a three-phase American strategy beginning with "stabilisation" to prevent chaos. Trump met oil executives on January 9 hoping to secure investments in Venezuela's reconstruction, but several expressed reservations about the country's stability, concerns that armed militias hunting Americans would seem to vindicate.

Authorities arrested at least 14 journalists during the capital's upheaval, sparking international alarm about press freedom. Venezuela's national press union reported that journalists had equipment and messaging apps searched during the crackdowns, whilst roadblocks effectively paralysed movement in and out of the capital.

The State Department's emergency alert noted that "intermittent power and utility outages continue throughout the country.” Officials urged citizens to arrange backup communication channels with contacts abroad and warned that Washington "continues to be unable to provide emergency services to US citizens in Venezuela" following the March 2019 withdrawal of all diplomatic personnel from the US Embassy in Caracas.

The colectivo violence suggests that Trump's assumption that working with Chavista administrators like Rodríguez and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino López would ensure stability may have underestimated the autonomous power of armed groups whose commitment to revolutionary ideology exceeds institutional loyalty.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado, sidelined by the Trump administration despite her Nobel Peace Prize and electoral mandate, hailed Maduro's arrest as a "huge step for humanity and freedom" but warned "the crisis was far from over as armed loyalists fight to cling to power." Her assessment appears prescient as paramilitaries demonstrate that removing Maduro did not eliminate the coercive apparatus sustaining authoritarian control.