Venezuelan opponents of the Government of Nicolás Maduro living in Argentina celebrated the capture of the president by the United States this Saturday and considered that it marks “the beginning of the end of a nightmare.”
“It is a day that we have been waiting for so many years. Today, all of Venezuela is celebrating, listen carefully, we are celebrating, because we foresee that this is the beginning of the end of a nightmare, for which we have fought for years and years,” said the opposition leader and general secretary of the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy (FADD), Elisa Trotta, during a press conference held at the Argentine Venezuelan Center, in the city of Buenos Aires.
Trotta expressed his expectation that Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate who competed in the controversial Venezuelan presidential elections of 2024 and who he considers was the true winner of those elections, will assume power and begin a process of institutional reconstruction.
“We hope that very soon President Edmundo González Urrutia will finally be able to go hand in hand with María Corina Machado to Venezuela, take the position that corresponds to him as president of the country and begin this process of fundamental re-institutionalization that Venezuela needs,” he added.
Trotta’s expressions were joined by others such as the Venezuelan Lormys Rojas, founder and president of the Lazos de Libertad Civil Association, who described in dialogue with the local press the emotional impact that the news had on the diaspora: “The emotions that I can feel are the same ones that all Venezuelans feel. In the early morning we spoke with the family by video call, all of us in bed, but following with emotion everything that was happening.”
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Opponents are in ‘shock’ at Maduro’s capture
For Rojas, the event marks a turning point: “This is something very big for us. I think it is the beginning of the end of a fight that we have been fighting for years. Many times we get our hopes up with political leaders, but this was the most forceful thing that happened.”
Liset Luque, a member of the Alliance for Venezuela organization and resident in Argentina for seven years, told local media that the news left her in a “state of emotional shock.”
“Many Venezuelans are between the longing for freedom and the impact of seeing who we consider the leader of a criminal system finally captured,” he said.
Luque also recalled the impact of the Venezuelan exodus and the complaints of human rights violations: “Being expelled from a country is summing up your life in a 23 kilo suitcase and starting from scratch.”
US President Donald Trump reported this Saturday that his country carried out “a successful large-scale attack against Venezuela” and indicated that “its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country.”
Then, he assured that both were transported by helicopter to the military ship USS Iwo Jima, deployed in the Caribbean since the summer, and that from there they will be taken before a Federal court in New York, where the Venezuelan president is formally accused of four charges, including conspiracy for narcoterrorism.
The Government of Venezuela requested an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council this Saturday, after the US bombings in various parts of the South American country, including Caracas.
With information from EFE
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