‘This would not have happened without Trump’: Venezuelans react to US actionpublished at 23:03 GMT 3 January
23:03 GMT 3 January
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Doral, Florida
Elkin, who has lived in the US for nine years, tells me he was woken up by a friend in Venezuela late last night, who reported the strikes before it hit social media.
“This would not have happened without Donald Trump,” he tells me in the distinctive Spanish of Venezuela, a broad smile on his face as he held a Venezuelan flag.
For now, Elkin is unconcerned by the transition of power, or Trump’s earlier comment that the US will “run” Venezuela.
“The important thing now is that [Maduro and his wife] they are finished, they won’t be able to come back,” he says. “Trump did that.”
Rosanna Matteo, a Venezuelan who has lived in the US since 2012, says she knew the US was “capable” of toppling Maduro – and Chavez before him – but never thought it would happen.
Matteo says she would often dream of waking up in the middle of the night to the news that Maduro had fallen.
“And last night my husband woke me up to tell me,” she says.
While she is not worried about the transition, she says she wants one thing to be made clear to the Trump administration: many Venezuelans like her would be furious if, in the long-term, officials tied to the Maduro regime remain in place.
“We don’t accept that, and we don’t want it,” she adds.