Credit: This interview was conducted by KATV Channel 7.
Five Things We Will Learn
- What daily survival looked like inside Venezuela for ordinary families—and why leaving became necessary.
- Why many Venezuelans see Maduro’s capture as “salvation,” not politics, and why outside criticism feels disconnected from lived reality.
- How intimidation, surveillance, and fear still shape daily life in Venezuela—even after Maduro is removed.
- What Venezuelans want Americans to understand about oil, nationalization, and the role of outside powers—including Russia and Iran.
- Why “hope” is the defining word right now, even as danger remains and families still feel exposed.
Why She Left Venezuela: “We Were Trading Milk for Diapers”
When asked how long ago she left Venezuela, the Venezuelan immigrant didn’t frame it as a life upgrade or a personal preference. She described it as a point of no return.
“It was about 2014 when my son was one year old,” she said. “I couldn’t stay more… I was at a point where if I didn’t have diapers, we couldn’t buy them. So… ‘Hey, I have milk. Do you have diapers?’ We started trading things to try to survive.”
For her, the breaking point was not political theory. It was motherhood under collapse. She didn’t want her child raised in a place where basic necessities disappeared and families were forced to barter just to stay afloat.
“So I thought that the best thing was trying to leave.”
Family Still There, and a Country Still Watching
Her story isn’t detached from Venezuela. Much of her family never left.
“I have a lot of family that still live in Venezuela,” she said. “I have uncles and aunts and cousins. My younger brother… still lives in Venezuela.”
That ongoing connection is why the events surrounding Maduro’s capture are not abstract to her. They are personal—because the people she loves are still inside the system.
“Set the Record Straight”: Why Many Americans Don’t Understand
As the interviewer referenced how some Americans objected to what happened in Venezuela, she immediately stopped the conversation to draw a hard line.
“Okay. So we need to set the record and make it clear in here… and this is the most important thing,” she said.
“100% of the Americans that are against what happened in Venezuela are not coming from experience. Whatever situation you have ever lived in the United States will never ever compare to the famine, persecution, and destruction that we have endured for 26 years.”
Her argument was direct: many Americans are critiquing from distance, not from memory of hunger, terror, and disappearance.
“You are upset that a military operation took place because of oil supposedly. That’s what is being said. But nobody said anything while people [were] starving eating out of the trash.”
She described friends who ate leftovers pulled from garbage. She described families who died because medications could not be brought in.
“I had family that died because we tried to take medications from the country that we were at and send it to Venezuela—and it wasn’t allowed in.”
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“We See It as Salvation”: What Maduro’s Capture Meant to Her
When the interviewer returned to the question—how Venezuelans see Maduro’s removal—she didn’t talk about geopolitics first. She talked about reunion.
“We see it as salvation, honestly,” she said. “We see it as the opportunity to hug our family again.”
Then she explained the price Venezuelans have paid for resisting.
“We fought way too hard and we were either killed, run over by their tanks, taken to prison and disappear.”
People she studied with vanished.
“They just took them away. They vanished them.”
She also described working for a government bank where loyalty displays were required, organized, and monitored.
“I work for the government… and they ran a list… whatever the president was going to be, we needed to be there in slotted times because we needed to make it look like it was full.”
“Unless You’ve Lived It in Your Skin”: Her Words on Socialism and Terror
She wasn’t interested in academic debate.
“An American that hasn’t lived the terror of socialism will never understand what is going on right now,” she said. “I don’t care if you have a master degree in whatever—unless you live it in your own skin, you won’t ever understand it.”
And she called it “terribly disrespectful” for outsiders to tell Venezuelans how they should respond.
“It’s terribly disrespectful to the people that have died saying that Maduro shouldn’t be where he is.”
The 2011 Protest: “We Started to Get Shot At”
She then shared a specific memory from 2011—an event she insisted is documented and verifiable.
“In 2011… there was an overpass… called Yaguno in Venezuela in Caracas… I was there with my mom. We were in the protest.”
“We started to get shot at from the top,” she said. “And the order was that anybody that was wearing the flag as a shirt or anything—we were to be shot.”
She claimed Maduro was among those attacking protesters.
“One of the people that was shooting down at protesters… was Maduro,” she said, insisting there are photos and proof.
Accountability, Even If It Starts with One Set of Charges
She acknowledged that Maduro’s capture was tied to charges that directly impact Americans, but she saw that as an opening for broader justice.
“America is making him accountable for the things that are threatening directly Americans—like drug charges and everything,” she said. “It’s just the opportunity that we have before other crimes. He can at least pay for some.”
For her, accountability matters not only because of what happened to Venezuela, but because it signals that terror isn’t untouchable forever.
The Morning the News Broke: “I Jumped… Screaming and Crying”
Her reaction was visceral.
“When I saw the news, it was 5:00 a.m. I woke up and I read it and I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was like, ‘No, no, this is impossible. Let me read again.’”
“I just jumped and I started screaming and crying. Call my mom. Call my brother.”
“This is what we prayed for. This is what we dreamed for.”
Then she added a sentence that carried both gratitude and urgency:
“We are not free yet. We need America to stay in Venezuela until all of the other bad guys are out. But without America, this wouldn’t be feasible.”
Venezuela Right Now: “Happiness and Fear”
When asked what Venezuela is like now, she didn’t paint a simple picture.
“So, Venezuela is a good amount of happiness and fear,” she said.
People celebrate in a familiar way:
“We do celebrate… we call it… pancolazo… like we make sounds with the pans…”
But fear remains because the broader power structure is still intact.
“At the same time… they are still in power even though Maduro is out. Delcy Rodríguez is as bad as he is.”
She said threats continue.
“People have been threatened… If you show support… we are going to come and get you.”
Why You Don’t See People Flooding the Streets
She explained the absence of mass public celebration with one word: control.
“The military in Venezuela is still under control… and if we go out to show support… it’s going to happen the same… We are either going to be shot at, killed, disappeared.”
She described what that fear looks like in practice: digital erasure.
“We get messages on WhatsApp,” she said. “Delete all the conversations… turn WhatsApp off… your Instagram… Don’t share anything.”
“If they stop you… they ask you for your phone and they check your WhatsApp… and then something may or may not happen with you.”
“Boot on the Ground”: Why She Fears What Happens If America Leaves
When asked if her family’s safety can be guaranteed, she answered with a warning.
“If America had boots on the ground…,” she began, then explained the deeper fear:
“It’s like you just step on the head of the snake and you have it stepped down. If you move your foot away from the head of the snake, it’s going to come out mad—biting all of us.”
“The danger is still present and fear is still there,” she said. “But we have something that we haven’t had in decades—and that is hope.”
“Set the Record Straight” About Oil—Including Russia and Iran
She returned again to what she called the need to correct the record.
“Venezuela had her golden years in the 70s and the 80s,” she said. “Venezuela’s oil industry was run by the United States—by American companies… Americans built schools… infrastructures and roads… My grandfather worked alongside them.”
Then she addressed the common accusation: that America only wants oil.
“Like, this is not like, ‘Oh America wants the oil of Venezuela.’ I mean, of course Russia, Iran—like all of them also want the oil… but the difference is what is being used for.”
She argued that Venezuela’s decline accelerated through nationalization, first under Carlos Andrés Pérez, then through Chávez’s full expropriation.
“Then he decided to 100% nationalize it… He expropriated the companies… Total chaos,” she said, describing how the country went from massive production capacity to a fraction of what it once was.
“We came from being the biggest country in oil to literally produce less than 18%… We produce less than Colombia.”
“We can’t even refine our heavy oil,” she said. “That’s why Iran has to help us.”
“Take the Oil. We Just Want Food.”
Her conclusion on the oil debate was blunt, not ideological.
“So when somebody says, ‘Oh, America just want the oil’—take it. We just want food.”
“If Russia and Iran and all of those countries are taking it already, Cuba… please, America, take it.”
Even joking claims about Venezuela becoming a U.S. state didn’t offend her—because her measure is survival.
“People say it’s going to be the 52nd or whatever state. Heck yeah—I’ll dance the YMCA. But because my family will have food on their plates. Because I will be able to go and hug my brother.”
“We Are Considered Traitors”
She explained the stigma carried by those who left.
“We are considered traitors because we left our country. Our passport means nothing.”
“If you go back to Venezuela, you just go to jail because you’re a traitor,” she said, pointing to statements she says the vice president has made.
“If we get with that passport in Venezuela and we come from places like this… we’re just going to be thrown in jail.”
A Brother’s Message from Inside Venezuela: “We Don’t Have a Future”
Near the end, she shared what her brother told her to say.
“I asked him… ‘If you had the opportunity to talk, what do you want me to say?’”
“He said, ‘I want them to know the truth… We don’t have a future. When we work, we don’t work for a home. We don’t work for a car. We don’t work for future plans.’”
He spoke about being unable to start a family, not by biology, but by economics.
“I would love to have children and I can’t… because we cannot afford it. We work for survival. And sometimes that doesn’t even happen.”
Nightmares, Borders, and the Trauma That Doesn’t Leave
She admitted she still carries fear in her body.
“I have constant nightmares that I am ripped away from my husband and I’m sent back to Venezuela… and I’m terrified of what they are going to do with me.”
She described her escape again in more detail:
“I had to cross the border with a one-year-old to Brazil. I had to hide my son in a car… They wanted to force us to stay. I left my country with just the clothes I was wearing and a little bit of diapers and milk.”
Then she delivered the line that summed up her entire testimony:
“Don’t you dare telling me that this is not a reason for celebration.”
The Shock of Abundance: “I Didn’t Even Know How to Open the Shower”
She described arriving in America and realizing how different normal life can be.
“When I first came into the United States, I cried… I had to turn around to my husband and ask him to please help me open the shower because I didn’t even know how to open the shower.”
And when she entered Walmart:
“When I walked into Walmart and I saw so many options to eat, I couldn’t believe myself.”
Her plea to Americans wasn’t political. It was personal.
“Our reality is different. We want to live… And I just wish that you could love [America] a little bit more and respect it a little bit more.”
She said plainly:
“If I had to give my life for America, I would.”
“They Can Destroy Everything… But Not What’s in Here”
She ended with a final claim: regimes can ruin economies, erase history, and devalue currency—but they cannot erase what people endured.
“Whatever they do, they can destroy our body. They can destroy our history… they took five zeros from our… they can destroy anything.”
“But what is in here? The things that we lived through… they will never take it away from us.”
And she clung to one expectation:
“There will be a day… I’m going to go and hug them all again… And that’s because real men in uniform went and took that man away.”
“And that is the truth.”