{"id":351083,"date":"2026-01-04T04:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351083\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T04:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:08:08","slug":"its-impossible-not-to-feel-relief-uk-venezuelans-on-maduros-capture-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/351083\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s impossible not to feel relief\u2019: UK Venezuelans on Maduro\u2019s capture | Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Cinzia de Santis woke up to the news that Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> had been captured by US troops in a pre-dawn assault on Caracas, she had mixed emotions. \u201cMy first reaction was he\u2019s gone, which is kind of good news,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But the manner in which the Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken to New York to face criminal charges \u2013 in a military operation that, at this point, appears to have little to no legal or constitutional authority \u2013 has sparked concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one who loves their country is happy to see foreign troops on its land. War and invasions are always a tragedy. That\u2019s my reaction to the way he was removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s also impossible not to feel relief when you know a system that has been built on fear, hunger, tortures, repression \u2013 it begins to collapse,\u201d said the 69-year-old, who is the chair and founder of the charity Healing Venezuela.<\/p>\n

She is part of the small but growing Venezuelan community in the UK. The most recent census, which took place in 2021, put the number of Venezuelan-born residents in Britain at over 21,000. \u201cWe\u2019re all very shaken and very moved. I hope this next chapter is going to be peaceful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

De Santis came to the UK 22 years ago, shortly after her name was published on the Tasc\u00f3n List in 2004, the names of individuals who had signed a petition seeking to oust the then president Hugo Ch\u00e1vez<\/a>, by calling for a recall referendum. It was later used by the government to deny those who had signed it access to state jobs and welfare programs.<\/p>\n

Cinzia de Santis: \u2018No one who loves their country is happy to see foreign troops on its land. War and invasions are always a tragedy.\u2019 Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, it was a forced exile. I wanted to stay,\u201d she said. \u201cMy daughter had to go to school with an emergency kit filled with food, water, and pills in case it was attacked and she was exposed to teargas.\u201d<\/p>\n

While De Santis is happy that Maduro, seen by many as a dictator<\/a>, is gone, she is hardly a fan of Donald Trump. She called him \u201cmy least favourite person in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his charisma is quite debatable. I\u2019m pretty sure his interest in Venezuela is a business interest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nearly eight million Venezuelans have left the country under Maduro\u2019s leadership \u2013 a quarter of the nation\u2019s population. Venezuelans began fleeing their country en masse when its economy collapsed in 2014, generating rampant inflation, poverty and insecurity. It caused a migration crisis that is the largest in the history of Latin America and exceeds the number of people displaced from war-torn Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the years, I\u2019ve seen what has been happening. The crumbling of the health system, the increase in malnourishment cases in children, the dramatic increase in mortality rates of pregnant women,\u201d said De Santis.<\/p>\n

For Alejandro Arenas-Pinto, the news has also been difficult to digest. He has been in touch with family who are still reeling from the situation. \u201cI\u2019m really worried about their wellbeing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"WhatWhat we know about the US attack on Venezuela \u2013\u00a0video analysis<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very difficult to justify the methods but it\u2019s very clear to me that the humanitarian crisis that Venezuelans have been living through makes people believe that perhaps this activity from a foreign government is justifiable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 55-year-old doctor said: \u201cIf you ask many people in Venezuela about the legality of this, that isn\u2019t their main concern. The main concern is far more existential and far more basic.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Arenas-Pinto understands why some in his home country may overlook the shocking and unprecedented way in which Maduro was ousted from power, he is worried about the future. \u201cMy main concern is in all these scenarios of political instability and military interventions, even when targeted, that there is a big possibility of trouble.<\/p>\n

A photograph which Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account shows what he describes as \u2018Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima\u2019. Photograph: @realDonaldTrump\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen what has happened in countries like Iraq or Libya or Syria \u2013 the humanitarian crisis is likely to get worse. Casualties and the deterioration of living may be called collateral damage by some but it can measured in lives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Maduro extended his 12-year rule despite widespread suspicions that he stole the most recent presidential election<\/a>, held in 2024. \u201cThey managed to go through the electoral path. They tried many ways. For many years, there have been a lot of people incarcerated for political reasons,\u201d said Arenas-Pinto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this is the right way of sorting a political conflict. But this is worse than a political conflict for many people in Venezuela who have tried really hard to do it in other ways and have failed. They failed mostly because the repression from the government has been brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Domingo Lapadula. Photograph: Supplied<\/p>\n

Domingo Lapadula said he had concerns about the US breaking the understood \u201crules of engagement\u201d but he expressed \u201csome happiness that the status quo has broken\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a very good situation. We should not talk about the US invading Venezuela and removing a president but removing a regime that has somehow kidnapped the country,\u201d said the 58-year-old manager in the automotive industry.<\/p>\n

He said the reaction of the military, who \u201cwere not reacting against an intruder, but were happy to have this action happening\u201d shows how little opposition there was to ousting Maduro. \u201cWhat is clear is that you could see that there was no fight in Venezuela,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Cinzia de Santis woke up to the news that Nicol\u00e1s Maduro had been captured by US troops…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-351083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}