A Venezuelan YouTuber based in Miami was arrested this week in Venezuela for allegedly inciting terrorism — and expats here say it's a reminder that the country is an especially risky place for them or anyone else to visit right now.
Last year, popular Venezuelan exile YouTube influencer Oscar Alejandro Pérez made a travel video while visiting Venezuela's capital, Caracas. In it, he points to the Credicard Tower in the city's Chacaito district, a building where he says he's told all of Venezuela’s credit and debit card servers are located.
In the video, Pérez then says, rather imprudently but not menacingly: “If you bombed this building, the country’s entire banking system would fall.”
Pérez — who has 2 million subscribers — insists he was joking. But on Sunday, during another visit to Venezuela, he was arrested at Caracas' Simón Bolívar International Airport while on his way to create YouTube content about the country's Salto Angel, the world's highest waterfall.
Authorities said his earlier video encouraged terrorism.
Pérez was released from detention 32 hours later on Monday. But for now he can’t leave Venezuela; he's under orders to make himself "available" to investigating prosecutors at a moment's notice.
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After his release, Pérez made a video apologizing for his bomb remark — "I would never try to disturb the public order," he says — but said Venezuelan officials "took it completely out of context."
Even so, Venezuelan diaspora leaders here in South Florida hope Pérez’s situation will be a warning.
Under Venezuela’s dictatorial socialist regime, they say, this can happen to anyone at any time — especially now, they argue, when that regime is lashing out as it faces U.S. and international criticism for its refusal to hold a free and fair presidential election this year.
In recent weeks, for example, the government has arrested a number of political opposition figures on what human rights activists call specious "conspiracy" charges.
“These are very tense times in Venezuela, and the truth is, we are all in a risky roulette,” said Venezuelan expat Adelys Ferro of Fort Lauderdale, who heads the nonprofit Venezuelan-American Caucus.
Ferro said that when Venezuelan expats these days visit Venezuela, hoping to reconnect with their patria, they too often ignore the fact that the regime has shown no compunction in recent years about jailing visitors — especially Venezuelan-American visitors like Pérez — as a way to exert leverage over adversaries like the U.S.
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They need to be more vigilant and less careless when they do go back, she insists, particularly if they have dual citizenship, which can make it easier for the regime to make them subject to Venezuelan dictates.
“For the last year and a half or so, people have started to feel that it is very calm and safe to go back," Ferro said. "But it’s a fake perception.
"It makes no sense for Venezuelan expats to put themselves in this kind of situation that Oscar is in right now. They're ignoring the dangers. So, this has to be a red flag.”
Ironically, Pérez's YouTube content itself, which focuses on uploading travel videos, may be partly responsible for stoking Venezuelan expat desire to visit Venezuela — as well as a too complacent attitude about the authoritarian rule of President Nicolás Maduro's government, which the U.N. has even cited for crimes against humanity.
In December, as part of a prisoner swap, Venezuela released six Americans who Washington said had been wrongfully detained there.
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