{"id":110414,"date":"2026-01-04T14:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T14:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/110414\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T14:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T14:27:15","slug":"maduros-capture-ignites-hope-for-change-among-el-pasos-venezuelans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/110414\/","title":{"rendered":"Maduro\u2019s capture ignites hope for change among El Paso\u2019s Venezuelans"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 Venezuelans living in El Paso are celebrating the news that Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured after a U.S. military strike early Saturday morning, Jan. 3.<\/p>\n

What we know about a US strike that captured Venezuela\u2019s Maduro <\/a><\/p>\n

Hours later, Maduro and his wife arrived by plane in New York, where they will be facing cocaine importation conspiracy charges and other counts in a new indictment.<\/p>\n

Maduro, wife face new indictment: What we know about the case <\/a><\/p>\n

William Rodr\u00edguez, who has lived in El Paso for eight years, said he migrated to the U.S. in 2019 to flee from political persecution. Rodr\u00edguez, who graduated as a lawyer from Central University of Venezuela, said the news of Maduro being captured feels like a dream became a reality.<\/p>\n

\"William<\/p>\n

William Rodriguez. Photo taken by Edith Montero\/KTSM<\/p>\n

\u201cThis news is what all of us Venezuelans have waited for, for over 20 years. This nightmare started with Hugo Ch\u00e1vez Fr\u00edas (former president of Venezuela), and today, we see this dream become a reality,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said in Spanish.<\/p>\n

Rodr\u00edguez said his family and friends back in Venezuela were sending him videos of the explosion and the helicopters, and asking if it was true or manipulated by artificial intelligence. He reassured them, telling them that the videos were real, and he later saw in the news that Maduro was captured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that I believe there are political reasons, perhaps even economic reasons, the important thing is that a big step was taken by the president of the United States, whom we should be thankful for. This was an extraction mission; the damage done was only made in strategic places of the government. There was no damage for civilians. I think that was the intention of the president of the United States,\u201d Rodr\u00edguez said.<\/p>\n

Fernando Alio \u2014 who was born in Venezuela and has lived in El Paso for 10 years \u2014 and his family were showing off the Venezuelan flag and cheering after the news of Maduro\u2019s capture.<\/p>\n

\"Fernando<\/p>\n

Fernando Alio (left) with his wife and children. Photo taken by Edith Montero\/KTSM<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to say very thank you, thank you, thank you to the U.S. government. Thank you so much. This is the opportunity for a show for my kids, my country. These guys (his family) never go and visit my country because they have a lot of problems. It\u2019s very, very bad government in Venezuela,\u201d Alio said.<\/p>\n

Alio also adds that maybe the U.S. wants to take advantage of Venezuela\u2019s oil, but this negotiation feels different.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s this negotiation is not different right now. It\u2019s 40 years ago, 50 years ago, it started a negotiations with the petroleum. All the companies and all the infrastructure from the petroleum in Venezuela is from USA,\u201d Alio said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t have any problem with the payment from this equation. It\u2019s the petroleum. In my person, I don\u2019t have any problem. For me it\u2019s OK. Venezuela has a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriel Garcia, who has been in El Paso for nearly 20 years, says he\u2019s excited for the change that\u2019s to come to the Venezuelan government.<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel<\/p>\n

Gabriel Garcia. Photo taken by Edith Montero\/KTSM<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, as a Venezuelan, I\u2019m very excited at the prospect of change in the Venezuelan government. It\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve had true democracy in the country and I\u2019m excited to see what\u2019s going to, 2026 and beyond, going to bring for Venezuela and the Venezuelan people,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that there\u2019s obviously some benefits that are going to come out of a regime change in Venezuela. There are going to be maybe closer ties with the U.S., including economic ties. But I think that overall there\u2019s a net positive for the Venezuelan people,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Angel Ortiz, a born-and-raised El Pasoan, says he has been pastoring across multiple countries for the past 27 years. He said during this time, he\u2019s met a lot of Venezuelans who said they are leaving their country in hopes of something better.<\/p>\n

\"Angel<\/p>\n

Angel Ortiz. Photo taken by Edith Montero\/KTSM<\/p>\n

All the Venezuelans that Ortiz has met and kept in touch with sent him videos and news articles about Maduro\u2019s capture. He said you can feel the optimism and hopefulness through the messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we\u2019ve (U.S.) always helped all over the world and there\u2019s reasons why people, every president gets involved. There\u2019s their own, their political, whatever political gains there are, but I think whether he\u2019s (Trump) doing it for his own gains or his own reasons, it\u2019s still going to be very helpful for the people. Because at the end of the day, the people are what\u2019s affected, and just by taking out a dictator like Maduro, it\u2019s going to give people, it\u2019s going to empower people to maybe even want to rise up on their own and say, \u2018You know what? Let\u2019s change our government. Let\u2019s change what\u2019s happening here.\u2019 And whether he gets it for his gain or not, it\u2019s going to be a very, very positive for the people,\u201d Ortiz said.<\/p>\n

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 Venezuelans living in El Paso are celebrating the news that Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[49215,138,140,139,498,41138,23159,49214,49213,49212],"class_list":["post-110414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-cilia-flores","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-ktsm","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-venezuela","tag-venezuelan-president","tag-venezuelans","tag-william-rodriguez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}