Much of the Venezuelan diaspora in South Florida and around the world has become impatient with the slow pace of democratic transition in Venezuela since the U.S. ousted dictator Nicolás Maduro — but a new poll finds Venezuelans inside the country are even more frustrated.
The survey conducted by the Caracas firm Meganálisis shows their approval of President Trump’s handling of the post-Maduro transition has plummeted.
More than 90% of Venezuelans told Meganálisis in January they were grateful to Trump for sending U.S. special forces into Caracas that month to remove Maduro, who's now facing drug-trafficking charges in New York.
But only about half said they feel good about Trump now.
More than three-fourths say things are going badly, and only 6% see things going well, under interim President Delcy Rodríguez — the Maduro regime holdover whom Trump has strongly praised for letting the U.S. take control of Venezuela’s oil.
Almost 90% percent disapprove of Trump’s support of Rodríguez, and 94% say she’s doing too little to move Venezuela back to democracy.
Last week, for example, Rodríguez asserted that a national amnesty process to free Venezuela's political prisoners has run its course — even though about half of them, almost 500, still remain behind bars.
READ MORE: Poll shows Venezuelans are grateful to Trump — but less optimistic he'll restore their democracy
As a result, almost 90% in the Meganálisis poll also say a new presidential election should be held this year — the Trump administration has suggested it could take two years — and about three-fourths said they’d vote for opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado. (Only 4% favor Rodríguez.)
Trump has mysteriously and controversially sidelined Machado since Maduro's arrest in January. She remains in exile largely because Rodríguez's government says she's not welcome to return to Venezuela.
But about three-fourths in the poll consider it "very important" that Machado return to Venezuela — and more than 80% say she should return this year.
More than 80% of the Venezuelans also say their economic situation has worsened under Rodríguez's interim presidency.
Thanks mostly to Maduro's catastrophic socialist economic policieis, Venezuela has only recently begun to recover from the worst humanitarian crisis in modern South American history.
In recent weeks, Venezuelan workers have held street protests demanding better wages. Some economists estimate a few months of the country's minimum wage today still only equals about $1.
Trump insists that getting Venezuela's oil industry back on track under U.S. oversight is the key to the country's rebound. But so far oil companies have largely been hesitant to commit to investing there.
In the January Meganálisis poll, most Venezuelans said they felt Trump was more interested in extracting their country's oil than in restoring its democracy.
