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DORAL, Florida (AP) — Revelers in South Florida chanted “freedom” and draped Venezuelan flags over their shoulders Saturday to celebrate. US military attack That brought down the government of Nicolas Maduro – a surprise outcome they had been waiting for but left them wondering what would happen next in their troubled homeland.
People gathered for a rally in Doral, Florida — the Miami suburb where President Donald Trump owns a golf resort and where about half the population is of Venezuelan descent — as word spread that the Venezuelan president had been captured and taken out of the country.
Outside the Doral el Arepazo restaurant, a center of Venezuelan culture, a man held a piece of cardboard with “Libertad” written on it in black marker. This was a sentiment expressed by other native Venezuelans who were hoping for a new beginning for their home country and chanted “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”
“We’re like everybody else — it’s definitely a combination of emotions,” said Alejandra Arrieta, who came to the United States in 1997.
Trump insisted on Saturday that the US government will do so run the country At least temporarily and was already doing so. The action marks the culmination of an escalating Trump administration pressure campaign on the oil-rich South American nation, as well as several weeks of planning to monitor Maduro’s behavioral habits.
Nearly 8 million people have fled Venezuela since 2014 and settled first in neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. After the COVID-19 pandemic, they increasingly turned their attention to the United States, wandering through the jungle in Colombia and Panama or flying to the US on humanitarian parole with a financial sponsor.
When socialist Hugo Chávez won the presidency in the late 1990s, upper-middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs came to Doral to invest in property and businesses. Political opponents and entrepreneurs setting up small businesses followed him. In recent years, low-income Venezuelans have flocked to work in service industries.
They are doctors, lawyers, beauticians, construction workers and house cleaners. Some people are naturalized US citizens or live in the country illegally with US-born children. Others overstay a tourist visa, seek asylum or have some type of temporary status.
Niurka Melendez, who fled her native Venezuela in 2015, said Saturday she hoped Maduro’s ouster would improve life in her homeland. Melendez immigrated to New York City, where she co-founded Venezuelan and Immigrant Aid, a group attempting to empower the lives of immigrants. She became a staunch advocate for change in her home country, where she said her countrymen were “facing a humanitarian crisis.”
He hopes that those difficulties will end as a result of American intervention.
“For us, this is the beginning of the justice that we want to see,” Melendez said in a phone interview.
He said his homeland had reached “breaking point” due to forced displacement, repression, hunger and fear. He called for international humanitarian assistance to help Venezuela’s recovery.
“Removing the authoritarian system responsible for these crimes creates not a guarantee, but the possibility of reform,” he said. “A future without criminal control over institutions is the minimum prerequisite for rebuilding the country based on justice, rule of law and democratic safeguards.”