{"id":386971,"date":"2026-01-04T08:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386971\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:04:12","slug":"venezuelans-in-the-us-celebrate-ouster-of-maduro-in-u-s-military-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386971\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelans in the US celebrate ouster of Maduro in U.S. military strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

DORAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Revelers chanted \u201cliberty\u201d and draped Venezuelan flags over their shoulders in South Florida on Saturday to celebrate the U.S. military operation<\/a> to capture Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and remove him from the country \u2014 a stunning outcome they had longed for but left them wondering what comes next in their troubled homeland.<\/p>\n

For some Venezuelan natives, the military action \u2014 culminating months of stepped-up U.S. pressure \u2014 brought their dreams of reuniting with loved ones closer to reality after years of heartbreaking separations.<\/p>\n

People gathered for a rally in Doral \u2014 the Miami suburb where President Donald Trump has a golf resort and where roughly half the population is of Venezuelan descent \u2014 as word spread that Venezuela\u2019s now-deposed president had been captured and flown out of the country. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People celebrate after President Donald Trump announced Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country, in Doral, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jen Golbeck)<\/p>\n

People celebrate after President Donald Trump announced Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country, in Doral, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jen Golbeck)<\/p>\n

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Outside El Arepazo restaurant, a hub of the Venezuelan culture of Doral, one man held a piece of cardboard with \u201cLibertad\u201d scrawled with a black marker. It was a sentiment expressed by other native Venezuelans hoping for a new beginning for their home country as they chanted \u201cLiberty! Liberty! Liberty!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like everybody \u2014 it\u2019s a combination of feelings, of course,\u201d said Alejandra Arrieta, who came to the U.S. in 1997. \u201cThere\u2019s fears. There\u2019s excitement. There\u2019s so many years that we\u2019ve been waiting for this. Something had to happen in Venezuela. We all need the freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Venezuelan exiles feel hopeful after US actions<\/p>\n

For David Nu\u00f1ez, the regime change offered hope for a long-awaited reunion with loved ones.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez said he fled to the United States six years ago after being persecuted in Venezuela for his political activism and has not seen his daughters \u2014 ages 8 and 17 \u2014 since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is that we\u2019re going to be able to be with our families soon,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cAt least for me, I haven\u2019t seen my daughters in six years so I have a lot of mixed feelings. I\u2019ve cried a lot. I\u2019m really happy because I know that I\u2019m going to be able to return to Venezuela very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump insisted Saturday that the U.S. government would run the country<\/a> at least temporarily and was already doing so. The action marked the culmination of an escalating Trump administration pressure campaign on the oil-rich South American nation as well as weeks of planning that tracked Maduro\u2019s behavioral habits.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

From left, Venezuelans David Nu\u00f1ez, Lisbeth Garcia, Victor Gimenez gather outside El Arepazo restaurant with a banner of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado amid celebrations following news of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro capture in Doral, Fla., on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vanessa Alvarez)<\/p>\n

From left, Venezuelans David Nu\u00f1ez, Lisbeth Garcia, Victor Gimenez gather outside El Arepazo restaurant with a banner of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado amid celebrations following news of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro capture in Doral, Fla., on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vanessa Alvarez)<\/p>\n

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After Trump\u2019s press conference about U.S. actions in Venezuela, people still gathered outside of the Doral restaurant sang, danced and waved flags. A percussionist drummed along with the singing crowd.<\/p>\n

People started gathering outside the restaurant once the news broke. Cooks were told to stay and prepare more food for anticipated high demand. Hundreds showed up, and the crowd kept growing as the day went on.<\/p>\n

Some say Maduro\u2019s ouster was long awaited<\/p>\n

Alexa Perez said she has waited year for this moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThanks, President Trump. This is our second liberty. This our independence day from today on,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n

She married a week ago and said the news was the \u201cbest wedding gift\u201d possible.<\/p>\n

Her husband, Aldo Amenta, said they were scared, excited and confused at first and felt better when they learned their family members were safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really happy and excited that the doors are open for Venezuela, for all of our people who deserve a chance,\u201d Amenta said.<\/p>\n

Perez responded positively to apparent U.S. plans to run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations, saying her homeland has not received anything from Russia, Iran and China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very poor, we have no hospital, we have no rights for our people,\u201d Perez said. \u201cSo I think this is going to be a great transition. Because once you know how the U.S. works, you know that everything can work better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan diaspora grew over decades<\/p>\n

About 8 million people have fled the country<\/a> since 2014, settling first in neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. After the COVID-19 pandemic, they increasingly set their sights on the United States, walking through the jungle in Colombia and Panama or flying to the U.S. on humanitarian parole with a financial sponsor.<\/p>\n

In South Florida, deep-seated concerns in the Venezuelan community about Trump\u2019s tough immigration policies<\/a> gave way to celebrations after Maduro was deposed in the American military operation early Saturday.<\/p>\n

In Doral, upper-middle-class professionals and entrepreneurs came to invest in property and businesses when socialist Hugo Ch\u00e1vez won the presidency in the late 1990s. They were followed by political opponents and entrepreneurs who set up small businesses. In recent years, more lower-income Venezuelans have come for work in service industries.<\/p>\n

They are doctors, lawyers, beauticians, construction workers and house cleaners. Some are naturalized U.S. citizens or live in the country illegally with U.S.-born children. Others overstay tourist visas, seek asylum or have some form of temporary status.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People celebrate outside Versailles Cuban Cuisine after President Donald Trump announced Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country, in Miami, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jen Golbeck)<\/p>\n

People celebrate outside Versailles Cuban Cuisine after President Donald Trump announced Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country, in Miami, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jen Golbeck)<\/p>\n

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\u2018Not a guarantee, but a possibility, for recovery\u2019<\/p>\n

Niurka Mel\u00e9ndez, who fled from Venezuela in 2015, said Saturday she\u2019s hopeful that Maduro\u2019s ouster will improve life in her homeland. Mel\u00e9ndez immigrated to New York City, where she co-founded the group Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid, which strives to empower the lives of immigrants. She became a steadfast advocate for change in her home country, where she said her countrymen faced a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

Now, she hopes those hardships will fade away.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s just the start of the justice we need to see,\u201d Mel\u00e9ndez said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

Her homeland had reached a \u201cbreaking point\u201d due to forced displacements, repression, hunger and fear, she said. Now there\u2019s a need for international humanitarian support to help in Venezuela\u2019s recovery. <\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving an authoritarian system responsible for these crimes creates the possibility, not a guarantee, but a possibility, for recovery,\u201d she said. \u201cA future without criminal control over institutions is the minimum condition for rebuilding a country based on justice, rule of law, and democratic safeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Schreiner reported from Shelbyville, Kentucky. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DORAL, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Revelers chanted \u201cliberty\u201d and draped Venezuelan flags over their shoulders in South Florida on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[188203,188202,188201,23,1927,14271,188204,12,2822,2808,793,64592,790,3140,2221,152186,2821,3,18231,111,18598,795,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,18232,965],"class_list":["post-386971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-aldo-amenta","tag-alejandra-arrieta","tag-alexa-perez","tag-america","tag-ap-top-news","tag-central-america","tag-david-nuez","tag-donald-trump","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-general-news","tag-hugo-chvez","tag-immigration","tag-latin-america","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-miami","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-politics","tag-south-america","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-venezuela","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}