When Venezuelan opposition leader — and Nobel Peace Prize winner — Maria Corina Machado last week endorsed President Donald Trump’s violent approach to dealing with the Maduro regime, the remarks triggered mixed reactions in South Florida, home to the nation’s largest Venezuelan community.
Some agreed with Corina Machado, while others remain hopeful for a more peaceful solution.
The past week has been a major flash point for South Florida’s robust Venezuelan diaspora as they prepare for a potentially larger conflict between the United States and the Maduro regime.
If U.S. military strikes inside Venezuela do happen, many Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. may be returning to a country at war. That’s because the Trump administration ended the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, program for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, forcing many to leave the U.S.
At the same time, the Trump administration has authorized military strikes that have already killed at least 75 alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
It has also established a heavily militarized presence in the region. The U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford arrived Tuesday to join the eight other warships and the almost 10,000 soldiers and sailors already deployed there.
READ MORE: Venezuela braces for a U.S. military strike. But will it change anything?
During a virtual appearance at the America Business Forum in downtown Miami last week, Machado called Trump’s approach “absolutely correct."
“He's the head of this narco-terrorist structure that has declared war on the Venezuelan people and to democratic nations in the region,” she told the audience, referring to Nicolás Maduro.
These comments came the same week that Trump agreed on 60 Minutes when asked if the Venezuelan dictator’s days were “numbered.”
“We have to clean up house,” Andreina Kissane of the Venezuelan-American Republican Alliance told WLRN, also referring to Machado saying at the forum that “liberating Venezuela will mean that Cuba and Nicaragua will soon be free again.”
Miami-Dade County voted Republican in last year’s presidential election for the first time since 1988, thanks in part to support from many Venezuelans in the county siding with the president.
When asked if potential land strikes would conflict with the “America First” agenda that Trump ran on as president-elect, Kissane disagreed.
“I want the United States to take care of the United States,” said Kissane. “Unfortunately, we don't have a leader who takes care of Venezuela right now. Therefore, we have to rely on somebody who understands that the well-being of his country, also depends on the wellbeing of the continent."
Kissane said that her only concern would be if the current tensions extend into a longer conflict and that the Trump administration needs to “move quick.”
“ [The regime is] used to having people trying to remove them,” said Kissane. “And then reestablishing themselves again. And nothing happens and they get stronger and stronger.”
There are prominent Venezuelans, however, that do view Trump’s approach in Latin America as a contradiction, but still back Machado’s efforts as an opposition leader.
”This is irrational, contradictory, and kind of aspirational for people to think that President Trump is going to enact a policy that will actually cause this transition,” attorney and diaspora activist Maria Corina Vegas told WLRN.
Vegas did express confidence in Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former U.S. senator and Venezuela hardliner, because Trump has someone in his cabinet who is ”intrinsically familiar with the plight of the Venezuelan people.”
She also added that Machado’s comments at the forum could be seen as “strategic, and if it helps bring around a nonviolent transition to democracy in Venezuela, I fully support it.”
However, like some Venezuelans looking at this conflict from the outside who might be weary of Trump’s approach but desperately want an end to Madurismo, Vegas said she would “rather wait and see before giving judgment ahead of time.”
For Florida International University Latin American affairs professor and pollster Eduardo Gamarra, the central question is “ what would an opposition leader do in the context in which she finds herself?” following last year’s attempt at a peaceful transition in an ultimately fraudulent election and the government’s persecution of Machado and her supporters.
Gamarra told WLRN that the conflict has the chance to make her the “ heroine of the story or might make her the villain.” He cited her largely being silent on issues facing the diaspora like the removal of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, and her support for the Trump administration's boat strikes.
”Because she's got this rather contradictory approach,” added Gamarra. “She's arguing for human rights for her followers and those who have been jailed. But she's not saying anything about massive deportation that violates basic due process. She's not saying anything about the massive de-legalization of 600,000 Venezuelans, who were legally in the country until Friday night. She's also not saying anything about the people who are being killed in the Caribbean without due process.”
Machado and 2024 presidential election winner Edmundo Gonzalez did release a statement Friday afternoon the day TPS ended for roughly 268,000 Venezuelans. The two opposition leaders wrote that they were worried about the “revocation… that would affect hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan citizens.” and that they had spoken with the Trump administration and Congress about finding solutions.
As the reality now settles in that these same exiles who were living and working in the United States may be sent back to a nation at war, even Venezuelans like Kissane – a Republican – are sounding the alarm.
“I fully, for the most part, support the decisions of, President Trump,” said Kissane. “But in this case, I'm really concerned on what was the thinking behind doing this… during the time we're trying to get liberated.”
Kissane also said that Miami’s three Cuban-American congressional members “should be doing way more” regarding TPS.
Miami Republican U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar have supported continuing TPS for Venezuelans, writing to top administration officials earlier this year that “a case-by-case review is warranted for individuals with legitimate claims of persecution.”
Gamarra told WLRN violent regime change is the least preferable to ending a socialist regime, and that the best way forward is by “ gradually electing a replacement.”
”This path is better,” said Gamarra. “It's long, it's painful. The recovery is going be long and painful. But the Venezuelan pathway of violent regime change is going to be longer.”
