Related videos:
Liberating Venezuela, yes, but the oil is ours: this is the phrase that sums up the position of the Venezuelan diaspora in light of the tension between the Trump Administration and the Maduro regime.
“Venezuela is not a prize,” said to EFE Ade Ferro, director of the Venezuelan American Caucus,
"We all dream of a free, democratic, and peaceful Venezuela, but not everything presented as a hardline approach or intervention is synonymous with democracy," he added.
The Venezuelan diaspora, despite its yearning to see the dictatorship overthrown, views Trump's claims on national assets unfavorably.
"That one monster defeats another monster may bring relief, but it doesn't compel me to side with the remaining monster," said Ferro, a director of this organization that seeks to protect Venezuelan migrants in the U.S., and who considers the return of democracy to her country to be "essential."
"The U.S. is trying to send them back to the same regime they fled from," he denounced regarding the criminalization in the U.S. of many Venezuelan migrants who have escaped from the dictatorship.
For Pedro Guzmán, a vehicle salesman in Miami also interviewed by EFE, shares essentially the same concerns as Ferro.
Guzmán expresses “deep gratitude for Trump’s pressure against Maduro, and yes, I believe we can offer something if they help us, but no land or oil forever. That would also be betrayal.”
On the contrary, Juana Martínez, an office cleaner, believes that “everything is worth it to get out of chavismo: even giving away oil; we already give it to the Cubans for free, so why wouldn’t we do it for those who help us get rid of Maduro?”
Others, however, are concerned about the cost of a potential invasion.
“My mom lives near the Palacio de Miraflores (the government headquarters), and I am very worried,” said Migdalia Peña, a graduate student in New York.
Antonio de la Cruz, president of Inter American Trends, told EFE that the notion that the U.S. wants to appropriate Venezuelan resources is incorrect
From a legal and geopolitical perspective, the analyst believes that the interpretation suggesting the U.S. wants to take Venezuelan territory is a "misguided interpretation."
“What is being proposed is a surgical operation, and this is what is being supported by the diaspora and the opposition,” commented the analyst, who entirely dismisses the idea of an intervention following the increased pressure from the U.S. on Maduro.
In recent days, the U.S. has seized three oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, in another escalation of tension between the two countries.
Filed under: