Venezuelans living in Ireland are feeling cautiously optimistic in the wake of the seizing of the country’s president Nicolás Maduro by the US at the weekend.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by US special forces and are now facing criminal charges in New York.
For Carmen Parada Ortiz (33), the abduction of Maduro is personal as it has allowed her to have some hope for her mother Xiomara Ortiz, a retired civil servant and well-known community activist, who was detained by the Maduro government three months ago for opposing the regime.
“People with masks took my mum. It was terrifying. Twenty days passed before my family were allowed to see her. She has been tortured,” said Ortiz, who moved to Ireland in 2013.
“Her face was almost broken on the right side. She’s ill and couldn’t get her medicine because she was kidnapped from our house.”
“I was a student in university. Many of my friends were arrested and one of them was killed in a protest,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz fears the situation in her home country will not change as the US only seized “the face of the regime, Maduro”. She says the man who really rules the country is Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s minister of the interior, justice and peace.
Carmen Parada Ortiz, a Venezuelan woman living in Ireland, with photographs of political prisoners in Venezuela, including her mother Xiomara Ortiz (in yellow). Photograph: Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times
Like Ortiz, Ricardo de Ascenção (32), said that during protests in 2014, he “saw friends dying on the streets”.
De Ascenção, who is from Venezuela’s capital Caracas, moved to Ireland in 2015. He met his partner Maria Isabel Meza-Silva (30), who grew up in Maracay, a city in northern Venezuela, in Ireland.
His friends and family in Venezuela were expecting the US to attack Venezuela, given the build-up of US troops in the region, but did not expect it so soon in the new year.
He said they are in shock at what happened, but happy about Maduro’s removal.
“We have been waiting for something to happen for the last 26 years,” De Ascenção said, referring to the period since Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez came to power.
“We have lived the protests, elections, general strikes, and we couldn’t do anything against the regime.”
His partner Meza-Silva is sceptical about President Donald Trump’s claim that the US will “run the country”.
“Venezuela hasn’t been run by Venezuelans in a really long time. In terms of the oil, it has been going to China, Russia, or Iran. So it hasn’t benefited Venezuela,” she said.
“Venezuela is years behind Europe or any other country in Latin America in terms of infrastructure. We have been asking for help, for support, and no one has listened. Now something has happened. I know it’s not ideal. It gives us a bit of hope.”
Liliana Fernandez (35) felt she had no choice but to leave Venezuela for Ireland, in 2013. At university, as a student representative for an opposition party, she said she was subjected to constant threats by supporters of Maduro’s regime.
Liliana Fernandez believes that respect for the rules-based world order and international legislation, which many are criticising Donald Trump for breaching, should be seen in light of daily human rights violations she says occur in Venezuela. Photograph Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times
She said it was “super scary” that Trump was “using our backyard as a playground”.
She believes respect for the rules-based world order and international legislation, which many are criticising Trump for breaching, should be seen in light of the daily human rights violations she says occur in Venezuela.
[ The Irish Times view on Trump and Venezuela: The principle of ‘might is right’Opens in new window ]
“No one talks about the suffering and misery that our people have carried for years, especially since oil prices plunged in 2014. People do not see how we are so desperate that even this is an option for us,” Fernandez said.
The Venezuelans in Ireland are concerned over Trump’s claim about how the country will be run by the US.
“No one wants to be ruled by a different country,” De Ascenção said.
He believes Edmundo González and Maria Corina Machado are “the visible face of the opposition” and hopes “the real election results from 2024 are respected”.
Fernandez fears the transition will be difficult, given that members of Maduro’s regime are embedded in Venezuela’s economy and institutions.
“All public institutions are ruled by people from the same political party,” she said.
Ortiz is concerned many politicians have been able to enrich themselves while in power through corruption, and are unlikely to give up their positions easily.
“They’ve getting rich off it. In Venezuela you only see Ferraris when you see those in power,” Ortiz said.
Carmen Parada Ortiz is concerned that many politicians in Venezuela have been able to enrich themselves while in power through corruption, and thus are unlikely to give up their positions easily. Photograph Nick Bradshaw/The Irish Times
Despite his concerns about the situation in his home country, De Ascenção, who hasn’t been to Venezuela for eight years, hopes to return some day.
“That’s something that Venezuelans around the world, we’re never going to lose – like the hope to come back to our country.”