Venezuelans suddenly have hope for the Economy. Less so for democracy.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. CARACAS, Venezuela—Weeks after a U.S. military raid ended the 13-year rule of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuelans are living through a whiplash transition that feels less like a democratic dawn and more like an economic takeover.

Maduro’s regime is still largely in place, led by his vice president and confidante Delcy Rodríguez. There is little talk of holding free and fair elections. Masked intelligence agents, dressed in black and armed, still man checkpoints throughout the city, a reminder that Maduro may be gone but his legacy of repression lives on.

At the same time, there is hope for the economy for the first time in a decade, as relations with the U.S. thaw. The Trump administration sold $500 million of Venezuelan oil and pumped $300 million of it into Venezuelan banks, in a bid to help lift the country’s currency, the bolivar, and tame hyperinflation.

Meat prices have fallen nearly 60%. “I would not have said this a month ago, but it actually feels like things could improve for a change," 31-year-old Marisela Perez said as she was buying groceries with her two children in an east Caracas slum. Venezuela now represents a practical application of what President Trump’s aides call the “Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, the maxim that the U.S.

calls the shots in the Western Hemisphere. For Venezuelans, they get a transactional peace with the U.S. and hope for a better day-to-day life, in exchange for fewer political rights, including a wish for democracy that appears delayed well into the future.