Misleading video claims to show celebrations in VenezuelaPublished at 13:26 GMT
Shayan Sardarizadeh
BBC Verified Senior Journalist
A number of misleading videos have been posted online claiming to show people flooding the streets of Caracas, waving flags and dancing in celebration after the US detained President Nicolas Maduro.
This weekend, many celebrations surrounding President Maduro's abdication occurred in Latin American countries such as Argentina and Chile, as well as other countries with Venezuelan diaspora such as Spain and the United States.
So far, no visual evidence of large-scale celebrations inside Venezuela has been found.
But a video shared on X by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claims to show people gathering on the streets of Caracas this weekend. It has been viewed more than 2 million times and is an aerial shot of a large crowd and vehicles trying to move through it.
Jones claimed that “millions of Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas and other major cities to celebrate the overthrow of communist dictator Nicolás Maduro.”
However, a reverse search of the video's frames to find the original version confirmed that it was not the footage, but instead depicting opposition protests in Caracas in July 2024 after Maduro's contested presidential victory.
Another post by a pro-Trump journalist, which has been viewed nearly 4 million times, shows people holding Venezuelan flags dancing to music. “World Cup style celebrations are happening all over Venezuela,” one user said.
Although this video is recent, background details and corroboration with other videos of the same event confirm that it was indeed filmed at a Chevron gas station in Doral, Florida, where many Venezuelan-Americans live.
A similar video claimed to show a jubilant crowd in Venezuela, but a review of the landmarks in the clip confirmed it was filmed in Panama City.
A Venezuelan living in the UK told the BBC that people in the country were “very quiet” about Mr Maduro's seizures. This is because they are not able to “express their feelings freely about what happened.”
