I saw the following text across different parts of the Internet, apparently accredited to a displaced Venezuelan in America named Juan Pablo Sans.

Unless you are Venezuelan, you are missing almost everything that matters. I am Venezuelan. I left my country in 2013, when Hugo Chávez died and Nicolás Maduro took power. I didn’t leave because I wanted to “try life abroad.” I left because I could see what was coming, and staying meant watching my future shrink year after year. So when Americans ask, “What do Venezuelans think about Trump forcing Maduro out of the presidency?” Let me answer that question honestly, without slogans, without moral theater, and without pretending this is simple. Most Venezuelans feel relief. Not because we love Trump or because we believe the U.S. does things out of pure love for freedom. And not because we are naïve about geopolitics, oil, or power. We feel relief because we have lived through something Americans have never experienced: a country where nothing works, where elections don’t matter, where money stops being money, and where time itself feels broken.

Now, before someone jumps in to say “but not all Venezuelans agree,” let’s be precise. Yes, there is a minority that doesn’t agree. And that minority usually falls into one of three groups.

• Some were doing business with the regime.
• Some were personally comfortable inside the system and insulated from its worst consequences.
• And some were pushed into such extreme poverty that survival depended on obedience.

Continue reading →