Miami has the largest number of Venezuelan expats. Hundreds of people came to welcome the news that US authorities had taken President Nicolas Maduro into custody.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Everything is fine. To bring everyone up to speed, ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York State this evening. This is stated in a video published by CNN. A man resembling Maduro, who appeared to be shackled and surrounded by US law enforcement officers, was led down the plane's stairs and across the runway. Let's head to Florida, where Venezuelan expats are celebrating. South Florida has the largest Venezuelan population in the country, and hundreds of them gathered in a Miami suburb early this morning in what appeared to be a spontaneous gathering.
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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing) Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom.
KELLY: Libertad, they're calling there. NPR's Greg Allen spent the day talking to Venezuelans and Venezuelan-Americans. Hello Greg.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hi, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Is it fair to say that Venezuelans are mostly happy with Maduro's resignation? What did you hear?
ALLEN: Right. Well, you know, as you know, this is a community of people here in South Florida who fled the regimes of Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro. So it's a holiday, without a doubt. Everyone here was delighted. It started before dawn, immediately after Trump posted news on social media that US troops had captured Maduro and his wife. Several hundred people gathered at this popular gathering spot in the Miami suburb of Doral. It's called El Arepazo restaurant. One of those present was 18-year-old Zoely Gutierrez (ph). She was there with her mother.
ZOELY GUTIERREZ: My mom woke me up this morning at 8. She was like, they took him, and I was like, who did they take? And she’s like: Maduro. They took it. And I woke up, and we were like: let's go, let's go.
ALLEN: You know, there were Venezuelan flags everywhere today. The sellers were selling them. Lots of singing and hugging. It was a real party.
KELLY: Yes. Tell us more about what this might mean for Venezuelans who came to Florida and settled in Florida after fleeing the Maduro regime.
ALLEN: Right. Well, you know, hundreds of thousands of people have come here over the last two decades, you know, families and individuals, families. And, you know, as one person told me before, we were hoping that we could come back. Now we really think we have a process. In other words, people are watching to see what happens next and when it will be safe for them to return to Venezuela. Michelle Guerra is a Venezuelan I spoke with today who works for a city council member in Doral.
MICHELLE GUERRA: I know for a fact that a lot of people want to come back. The question is, do we have a safe environment so that we can grow, so that we can just thrive as people in what this world is today?
KELLY: Greg, I'm curious what you're hearing from people about this plan by President Trump that the United States will now govern Venezuela, that there will be a safe transition. What's the reaction?
ALLEN: Well, that was interesting. I spoke to several people about this, and many were simply not ready to focus on anything other than the fact that Maduro was missing. They were so happy about this that they didn't want to talk about the next one, and I think they're willing to give President Trump the benefit of the doubt. However, I spoke with one person – Daniel Escalante (ph), who was there with his family. He lived in the USA for 26 years. He said it was good that Maduro was away, but what really worried him was what would happen next.
DANIEL ESCALANTE: The US will remain in power until there is a transition period. You know, this might take a while. It could be tomorrow. It's just not true – we don't know. And this might be a little problematic just because he claims that Venezuela is still free, but who knows, right?
KELLY: I want to ask about domestic politics here in the States because President Trump did very well with Venezuelan American voters in the last election. What are you hearing now?
ALLEN: Yeah, I think some of that support has started to wane in recent months. Polls show the rate has fallen among Venezuelans due to a crackdown on immigration. Over the past few months, the Trump administration has revoked Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. Many are now forced to return to a country still in chaos, and Escalante says he knows people who didn't come to celebrate today because they are worried…
KELLY: Right.
ALLEN: …About deportation.
ESCALANTE: The first thought that a lot of people had was, “I'm not going there, there might be an ICE raid.” So people are still afraid of ICE, getting deported, and not seeing their families.
KELLY: One of the many voices we hear in Greg Allen's reporting in Miami.
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