SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Venezue­lan ac­tivists in Trinidad and To­ba­go are cel­e­brat­ing the re­moval of Venezue­lan leader Nicolás Maduro by the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Ac­tivist Yesina Gon­za­lez, who has been in this coun­try for more than 40 years, though elat­ed, cau­tioned that Venezuela could face a pe­ri­od of in­sta­bil­i­ty, with the risk of drug lords and crim­i­nal el­e­ments at­tempt­ing to take ad­van­tage of the sit­u­a­tion un­til law and or­der are ful­ly re­stored. Gon­za­lez said this tran­si­tion could be man­aged more swift­ly un­der the guid­ance of the Unit­ed States mil­i­tary, led by US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, who is al­so Com­man­der-in-Chief of the US armed forces.

Speak­ing yes­ter­day, hours af­ter news spread of Maduro’s cap­ture by the US, Gon­za­lez said many Venezue­lans cur­rent­ly liv­ing in T&T are pre­pared to re­turn home once con­di­tions sta­bilise.

“To­day is a very, very hap­py and emo­tion­al day for many Venezue­lans,” she said. “For the Venezue­lan com­mu­ni­ty here, across the world, and for all who be­lieve in free­dom, dig­ni­ty, and the right of cit­i­zens to live with­out fear, this mo­ment rep­re­sents hope.”

She claimed that for years Venezue­lans have en­dured se­vere hard­ship, in­clud­ing eco­nom­ic col­lapse, short­ages of food and med­i­cine, the sep­a­ra­tion of fam­i­lies, and the si­lenc­ing of or­di­nary voic­es.

“These are not po­lit­i­cal ar­gu­ments; they are lived re­al­i­ties,” Gon­za­lez said. “They are the rea­son mil­lions of Venezue­lans were forced to leave their home­land, cross­ing bor­ders in search of safe­ty, work, dig­ni­ty, and free­dom.”

Gon­za­lez al­so ex­pressed grat­i­tude to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, the Gov­ern­ment, and the peo­ple of T&T for their sup­port of Venezue­lans over the years.

“The Prime Min­is­ter has shown com­pas­sion and love for the peo­ple of Venezuela by sup­port­ing re­cent de­vel­op­ments that may re­store free­dom and ac­count­abil­i­ty,” she said. “She made dif­fi­cult de­ci­sions when hu­man lives and dig­ni­ty were at stake. Many Venezue­lans found refuge, op­por­tu­ni­ty, and hu­man­i­ty here, and I have seen first­hand how kind­ness and sol­i­dar­i­ty can re­store hope.”

She al­so thanked the US and Trump for what she de­scribed as their lead­er­ship and sup­port.

“For many Venezue­lans, this sup­port means that our suf­fer­ing was not ig­nored and that our call for free­dom was heard be­yond our bor­ders,” she said.

Gon­za­lez stressed that the top­pling of Maduro should not be seen as re­venge.

“This is not about ha­tred. It is about hope,” she said. “Hope that Venezuela can re­build its in­sti­tu­tions, re­store op­por­tu­ni­ty, and al­low its cit­i­zens to live with­out fear. It of­fers the pos­si­bil­i­ty that fam­i­lies sep­a­rat­ed by cri­sis can re­turn home with dig­ni­ty, and that chil­dren can grow up in a coun­try where free­dom and jus­tice are pro­tect­ed.”

Mean­while, so­cial ac­tivist Sofia Figueroa-Leon said that while many Venezue­lans are cel­e­brat­ing, there is grow­ing con­cern that oth­er key fig­ures with­in Maduro’s in­ner cir­cle were not de­tained dur­ing the US mil­i­tary op­er­a­tion. “Peo­ple are elat­ed, yes, but they are al­so wor­ried that Dios­da­do Ca­bel­lo, Del­cy Ro­dríguez, her broth­er Jorge Ro­dríguez, and Padri­no López were left be­hind. It makes ab­solute­ly no sense to take one and not the oth­ers, be­cause you are con­tin­u­ing the same cy­cle.”

Figueroa-Leon said the cap­ture of Maduro marked a mo­ment of cel­e­bra­tion for many Venezue­lans, but de­scribed the at­mos­phere across the coun­try as a “tense calm”.

“I have spo­ken with friends in dif­fer­ent states and peo­ple I went to school with,” she said. “Every­one is wait­ing to see what hap­pens next.”