Coverage was not always neutral. Luz Mely Reyes, a Venezuelan journalist and co-founder of the digital outlet Efecto Cocuyo, believes that the country’s mass migration has been “criminalised” in the media in the region. This is particularly the case in Chile, where the far-right president-elect, José Kast, is set to take office next month, and where Reyes has observed a clearly “biased” and openly “anti-migrant” framing in the conservative media.

After the widely documented electoral fraud of July 2024 and Maduro’s self-proclamation as re-elected president, the diverse Hispanic-language press – like the rest of the world’s media – briefly turned its gaze back to Venezuela. Media outlets, Gil said, discussed irregularities in the electoral system, attempts at regional mediation, and then the inaction of neighbouring countries. “After all that,” she said, “silence. Until now.”

Since then, Venezuela has been catapulted back into the spotlight by the US seizure and arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on 3 January. The Hispanic-language media have amplified both conservative and progressive interpretations, ranging from narratives that frame the incursion and kidnapping as a blow against authoritarianism and a victory for US energy security, to others that liken the operation to past US interventions in Iraq and warn that it sets a dangerous precedent threatening sovereignty across Latin America.

Although Reyes said it remains difficult to assess the extent to which this coverage is shaping political decision-making on Venezuela across the region, she noted: “There are two major blocks of ‘narratives’: one that seeks to focus on how Maduro left, because of the implications this has for Latin American governments, and the other major block is that there is still no transition to democracy. The truth, as usually happens, is more nuanced.”

Reyes added that the visit of the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, to Caracas this week led the Trump administration to have “extensive contact with US media outlets of different leanings” – something that she noted “was not the case with Venezuelan media, nor even with those that write in Spanish”.

“This is something that should be corrected,” Reyes said. “Telling in Spanish, and telling well, what is happening in Venezuela is not only an exercise in memory but also a responsibility.”

The prelude to Maduro’s capture

To understand the current Spanish-language media coverage, you have to go back to September last year, when Donald Trump began attacking Venezuelan boats in international waters.

Back then, the US administration claimed it could “wage war” on the Venezuelan individuals and vessels, rather than detain and prosecute them, because they were allegedly trafficking drugs for cartels designated as terrorist organisations, placing them in the same category as Al Qaeda or ISIS. This was justified with reference to high overdose deaths in the US, despite the fact that rising fatalities are driven primarily by fentanyl, a substance largely trafficked from Mexico.