READING, Pa.- When news broke that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and brought to the United States, for many Venezuelans in Berks County, like José Parra, it was more than just a headline.
“At 2 o’clock in the morning she told me, ‘Chamo, something happened in Venezuela,’” Parra said. “So, after I opened social media, I saw what had happened. I cried. I said, ‘Oh my God.’ I told my wife. We want to be free.”
Parra left Venezuela decades ago. He says he’s lost family there and couldn’t even return to say goodbye. He told 69 News the Venezuelan government has not renewed his passport, and as a dual U.S.–Venezuelan citizen, he says he must enter and leave Venezuela using a Venezuelan passport.
“So, my father died, my mother died, my sister died,” Parra said. “Even I can’t go say goodbye to my family.”
He says the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is constant and deeply personal.
“Sometimes in Venezuela, there’s no food,” he said. “You wait in line for two hours to buy chicken… and then they say, ‘Oh, the chicken is gone.’”
Maduro is now facing federal drug trafficking charges in the United States, charges that are legally separate from the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Venezuela.
But Parra says for families like his, the story goes far beyond the courtroom.
“I understand the people, they don’t know Venezuela. They never lived there. They don’t know the situation,” he said. “Nobody wants a war. Nobody wants people to die. The situation right there is very bad.”