Venezuelans celebrated when it was announced that the United States military captured Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
In a post on X from the Las Vegas Locally account, it was revealed that the Venezuelan community in Las Vegas would be throwing a “Venezuela Libre” party.
“Venezuelans in Las Vegas will be throwing a ‘Venezuela Libre’ party tonight to celebrate the capture of Nicolás Maduro,” the post from Las Vegas Locally said.
In a post on X, filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza shared a video of a young man explaining to Local10 News, how President Donald Trump had “created an opportunity” for Venezuelans to “begin working harder than ever” in their country.
“All eyes on Venezuela. This [are] historical news. This is history in the making,” the man said. “I mean, my chest, it feels like it’s going to explode with joy because … I mean, before I was even born, there had been struggles, my family has been fighting for so many years…..before I was even here. They have told me about it, they told me about a time where democracy existed and now, I can finally look forward to that.”
Local10 News reported that the man, Edgar, was among “hundreds of Venezuelans” in Doral, Florida, who celebrated Maduro’s capture.
One person, Noah Kagan, the Chief Sumo at AppSumo.com shared his “wife, her family and all her friends are from Venezuela,” and adding that Maduro turned Venezuela from a thriving country, into a place that he “personally cannot even visit for fear of getting kidnapped.”
“My wife, her family and all her friends are from Venezuela,” Kagan wrote in a post on X. “This is the GREATEST thing that has happened to their country in 25+ years. A total dictatorship had Maduro who was the driver of the previous president running a literal drug cartel out of the country.”
“He turned the #1 wealthiest country in South America, #1 country for oil reserves, #1 country for Miss Americas, #1 country for tallest waterfall and SO many more special things…Into a place that I personally cannot even visit for fear of getting kidnapped and ransom,” Kagan continued, adding that “basic medicine is not available” and that the “power goes out daily,” among other issues.
In an interview with NewsNation, Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a Venezuelan immigrant, explained that Venezuelans were “tired of 26 years of a regime that force nearly one-third” of them to leave.
“Venezuelans are tired of 26 years of a regime that forced nearly one-third of us to leave our country,” Di Martino said. “This is why I have no immediate relatives in Venezuela, because we all ended up leaving in the last ten years.”
One Venezuelan woman, “who has spent the last seven years in Chile,” expressed that she was “happy that the dictatorship has fallen,” according to Reuters.
The celebrations of Maduro’s capture come after Trump announced on Saturday morning that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were “captured and flown out of the country.”
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.”
The capture of Maduro comes as the former leader of Venezuela “has maintained himself in power through a series of sham presidential elections.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife “have been indicted in the Southern District of New York” and that “Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.”