The Venezuelan diaspora in Miami is not at all bothered by a possible intervention by the United States to free the country from Nicolás Maduro, but when Donald Trump’s rhetoric He went from the fight against drug trafficking to the oil issue, things change.
The breaking point for migrants, activists and Venezuelan experts consulted by EFE came when the American president’s speech He went on to talk about recovering “land”, “assets” and “oil rights” in Venezuela.
“Venezuela is not a loot,” said Ade Ferro, director of the Venezuelan American Caucus group, describing the confusion that spread quickly among Venezuelans in Miami. by Trump’s shift to oil rhetoric.
“We all dream of a free, democratic and peaceful Venezuela, but not everything that is presented as a heavy hand or intervention is synonymous with democracy,” he warned.
Ferro, who considers that the return of democracy to Venezuela is essential, appealed to a crude image to explain the moral dilemma: “Let a monster defeat another monster It may bring relief, but it doesn’t force me to side with the remaining monster.”
The problem, he added, is that the framework changed completely when the conversation stopped focusing on democracy or into crime and began to revolve around oil resources.
The organization’s leadership, which has been fighting for months to protect Venezuelans without permanent immigration status from the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies,He also recalled that many of the Venezuelans currently criminalized in the United States are politically persecuted, ppeople who survived disappearances, kidnappings and torture.
“The United States is trying to return them to the same regime from which they escaped,” he denounced. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, at least 17 planes have left the United States and have arrived in Caracas with deportees.
“No land or oil”
Pedro Guzmán, a vehicle salesman in Miami, “deeply appreciates Trump’s pressure against Maduro, and I do believe that something can be given to them if they help us, but no land or oil forever. “That is also treason.”
There are also many, like Juana Martínez, an undocumented office cleaner, who assures that “Everything is worth it to get out of Chavismo: even giving them oil; We already give it to the Cubans for freeis, how are we not going to do it to those who help us get out of Maduro.”
Added to all this is the concern that an eventual attack by US forces will cause civilian deaths. “My mother lives near the Miraflores Palace (seat of government) and “I am very worried,” said Migdalia Peña.a graduate student in New York.
From a legal and geopolitical point of view, for analyst Antonio de la Cruz, president of Inter American Trends, the interpretation that the United States wanting to keep Venezuelan territory is a wrong interpretation.
De la Cruz, on the other hand, completely rules out the possibility of an intervention following the increase in US pressure on the Maduro government, which he accuses of leading the Cartel of the Suns, something that Caracas denies.
The pressure has included months of bombings of alleged boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
With information from EFE
