CARACAS, Venezuela — When explosions erupted by night in Venezuela's balmy capital, 21-year-old Mariana Camargo dashed through the streets of eastern Caracas.
It was at 2:05 in the morning and, as explosions boomed in the background, Associated Press photographer Matías Delacroix was on the street snapping what would become one of the first images of the American military operation in Venezuela.
Days later — after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was replaced by his vice president following his capture by the Trump administration — Camargo and Delacroix found a moment of calm at the same place the emblematic photo was taken.
''A woman arrived in a big truck and she screeched to a stop and said ‘kids what are you doing here, go home they're bombing!'' Camargo remembered. ''We were like nine people and we were like ‘Well, let's run.' We started to run and passed by here.''
The images show Camargo in a white shirt and jeans, sprinting through the street, with fear and urgency painted on her face, with a group of her friends running behind her. She said she clocked Delacroix standing to the side as he took the photo.
It was that emotion that caught the eye of Delacroix, who minutes earlier awoke to the rumbling sound of American strikes, grabbed his camera and ran onto the street toward the explosions. It was there, with the sound of military aircrafts overhead, that the two crossed paths: one person running away from the blasts and one running toward them.
''What caught my attention was how you were running, with your cellphone and clearly scared. I have photos of your friend that was behind you, but between the two photos, yours was the one that expressed the most what was happening,'' said Delacroix to Camargo as they flipped through the photos.
As the photograph proceeded to paint the front pages and websites of the world's biggest media, capturing a moment set to transform the hemisphere, Camargo's friends began to see her and write her in their WhatsApp group message.
