Musk reshares AI-generated Venezuelan celebration clip after US military operation

Following the shock capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from Caracas by US forces, a video allegedly showing triumphant demonstrations in the streets of the country spread via accounts with large followings, including a repost by X’s billionaire owner Elon Musk.

However, the clip does not depict authentic scenes and was originally posted by a dubious account bearing warped elements characteristic of artificial intelligence.

“Venezuelans are crying on their knees thanking Trump and America for freeing them from Nicolas Maduro,” reads the caption of a January 3, 2026 video posted on X by Wall Street Apes, known for repeatedly spreading misinformation.

The clip appears to show a compilation of emotional people surrounded by Venezuelan flags who speak in Spanish about being “finally free.”

Musk, who frequently amplifies fake reports and misleading claims, also reshared the video.

The visuals of supposedly exuberant crowds surged across X, Instagram, Threads, TikTok and Facebook where it was shared by conservative influencer David J. Harris Jr and comedian Terrence Williams, both of whom have spread misinformation previously fact-checked by AFP. Spanish and Portuguese-language accounts also posted the clip.

US President Donald Trump — who appointed Musk to a brief posting at the beginning of his second term — claims Caracas is using oil money to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping.”

Following months of controversial US military activity in the region, American forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the early hours of January 3 and transported them to the United States. They both pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges in front of a federal court in New York on January 5.

A self-described socialist, Maduro insisted he remains the president of Venezuela which he led for more than a decade through a series of elections the United States and countries around the world did not recognize as legitimate.

As news of Maduro’s capture rippled out, exiled Venezuelans waved flags and celebrated across the globe while some 2,000 of the deposed president’s supporters rallied Sunday in Caracas.

But the images spreading on social media of people in Venezuela crying and thanking the United States are fake.

Reverse image search reveals the earliest version of the clip shared by the TikTok account @curiousmindusa, whose other posts BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh reported are rife with AI-generated content. AFP reached out to @curiousmindusa via direct message but a response was not forthcoming.

Close examination reveals several warped elements which indicate the video was made using AI.

For instance, some flags shown in the clip are nonsensical. One frame shows a standard which appears to mash together the American and Venezuelan flag, interlacing the United States’ star-spangled grid with the South American country’s blue, red and yellow stripes.

Another section shows a flag in the background with four different colored stripes which does not correspond to any country.

The figures in the clip appear uncanny and blurred and some objects in the video, such as one man’s flag, eventually disappear — both common characteristics in AI-generated media.