(AFP) – Some of the nearly eight million Venezuelans who fled economic collapse and repression under Nicolas Maduro gathered in their thousands in cities worldwide Saturday to celebrate the strongman’s ouster by US forces. Thousands massed in the capitals of Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and in Miami, dancing and hugging and waving Venezuelan flags.
“At last we’ll be able to go back home,” street vendor Yurimar Rojas told AFP, straining to make himself heard over an ebullient crowd gathered in Santiago, many decked out in the Venezuelan national colors of yellow, blue, and red. Maduro, whose claims to reelection in 2018 and 2024 were widely dismissed as fraudulent, was snatched by US forces in an early-morning military strike and flown to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
“This is tremendous for us,” celebrated Yasmery Gallardo, 61, who said she planned to return home soon from Chile, where she has lived for eight years. “I’m already planning my trip… I can’t wait to be back in my country!” Venezuelans in Chile have been spooked by the campaign promises of far-right president-elect Jose Antonio Kast to deport nearly 340,000 undocumented migrants he blames for a perceived rise in crime.
– ‘Thank you’ Donald Trump –
In Miami, thousands more gathered, singing and kissing the Venezuelan flag. “Thank you, Trump!” one shouted about the US president. “Today, January 3rd, the dreams of Venezuelans abroad came true,” Ana Gonzalez, one of the revelers, told AFP. Another, Anabela Ramos, said she had been waiting “27 years for this moment and now it’s finally happened, it’s finally happened!”
In Spain, home to about 400,000 Venezuelans, thousands came together in Madrid to celebrate. “He is gone, he is gone!” they shouted, many with Venezuelan flags draped over their shoulders. “I came to celebrate: at last we’re emerging from this dictatorship,” said Pedro Marcano, 47, who has his heart set on going home after 11 years abroad. But first, “we’ll need things to be a bit clearer,” he said.
The country’s future is uncertain, with Trump saying Saturday the United States will “run” Venezuela until a power transfer can happen. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has said she is ready to work with Washington, according to Trump, who said opposition leader Maria Corina Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to be president. Rodriguez later insisted in a public address that Maduro was Venezuela’s “only president” and the government was “ready to defend” the country.
At the Madrid rally, a message from Machado was played over a loudspeaker, and the crowd fell silent. “Venezuela will be free!” she said, and Marcano wiped a tear. In Buenos Aires, thousands similarly gathered in a joyous atmosphere. “No one wishes for an invasion and a bombing… but it was needed,” said 39-year-old Carlos Sierra, who left Venezuela in 2017. “It gives you back the hope of returning to your country.”
– ‘Divine justice’ –
In the capital of Colombia, which hosts nearly three million Venezuelans — more than any other country — hairdresser Kevin Zambrano grinned as he told AFP he was “Happy, happy, happy” to see the back of Maduro. “The first step is done, and everything else is a gain. (Thanks) to Donald Trump for helping Venezuela,” he said in Bogota, having left his home country 10 years ago.
Yeiner Benitez, a security guard in the Colombian capital, teared up as he recalled the hardship and fear that drove him to leave Venezuela in 2022. During his absence, his uncle died from what Benitez said was a common illness due to a lack of medication — a regular occurrence in the economically ravaged country. “Venezuela has gone through a very difficult process; these have been very hard years — years of hunger, misery, torture, friends lost, friends who disappeared,” Benitez told AFP. “So, forgive the emotion, but what’s happening today is extraordinary; it’s divine justice.”
Not everyone was happy with what they see as Washington’s foreign intervention. In Mexico City and Buenos Aires, groups gathered at the US embassies there to make their protest known. “Venezuelan brothers, resist… don’t hand over your land, your oil, your gold” to the United States, protest leader Mario Benitez told the crowd in Mexico, waving banners with slogans such as “No to war.” In Argentina’s capital, people chanted “Out, yankees, out!”
burs-mlr/mlm – Mariëtte le Roux with AFP bureaus
© 2024 AFP
