Venezuelans in Ireland look to the future with "hope" and "uncertainty"

A “grave, manifest and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law” is how United Nations experts described what occurred in Venezuela in the early hours of January 3 – when the United States launched a dramatic military strike on the country’s capital, Caracas, and captured both the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

Dubbed ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’, the mission, directed by US president Donald Trump, involved 150 aircraft, multiple branches of the US Armed Forces and months of surveillance. According to the Venezuelan Defence Minister, the operation resulted in the deaths of 83 people, including civilians. Barely 48 hours later, Maduro and Flores were standing in court in New York, pleading not guilty to charges related to ‘narco-terrorism’, while Trump revealed plans to “run” the country, and tap into Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves.

Many high-profile politicians and public figures around the world were quick to condemn the US military intervention in Venezuela, echoing the sentiments of the UN experts, who argued that the attack “set a dangerous precedent” and risked “destabilising the entire region and the world.”

Irish, European and UK leaders, meanwhile, have faced criticism in some quarters for failing to condemn Trump’s actions – with People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy calling Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Irish government’s response, or lack thereof, “a shocking indictment of a government that is determined to white-wash the violence of the United States.”

But while Irish people gathered for a ‘Hands Off Venezuela’ rally outside the US Embassy in Dublin earlier this month, demanding “an end to Trump’s imperialist aggression”, many Venezuelans living in Ireland and around the world have taken to the streets for a different reason – to celebrate Maduro’s arrest, and express their hope for an end to what Amnesty International have described as “a deep and multidimensional human rights crisis” that has gripped their country for years.

A LACK OF EVERYTHING

Maduro was first elected president in 2013, as the handpicked successor of Hugo Chávez. At multiple points during his regime, Amnesty International denounced “grave human rights violations and also crimes under international law, including crimes against humanity” in Venezuela.

Following the 2024 presidential election, in which Maduro claimed victory – despite the opposition and international community saying he lost – Amnesty noted a rise in “politically motivated arbitrary detentions”, and a crackdown on dissent by the government that also included “unlawful killings”, “torture” and “enforced disappearances”.

Alex Murillo, the Caracas-born frontman of Dublin rock band Brake Loose, says that, when he left Venezuela 10 years ago, “the situation was devastating.”

“Loads of acquaintances, and colleagues from the university that I went to there, protested in the streets against this regime, as I did back in 2013 and 2014 – and they were murdered,” Murillo reflects. “A girl I know was shot in the head, just for protesting against the oppression.

“When I was migrating, there was no food in the supermarkets,” he adds. “The public hospitals were destroyed. There was a lack of medicines. There was a lack of everything.”

Venezuela’s ongoing economic crisis – which began during Chávez’s presidency, but worsened under Maduro – has been blamed largely on poor governance, in addition to falling oil prices and economic sanctions. Murillo is one of around eight million Venezuelans to have left the country since 2014, seeking safety and better opportunities.

I THOUGHT IT WAS AI

For Andrea Olivo and Andrea Figueira – friends from Caracas, who set up the popular Pacheco Venezuelan Street Food business after moving to Ireland – their immediate reaction to the US attack on their home country was one of shock.

“My parents were very close to one of the places they bombed,” reveals Figueira. “They could hear everything, and feel the windows vibrating very hard. That was scary for me and my sister, who also lives abroad.”

“It was a shock to see images of the city basically on fire,” adds Olivo. “And when I saw the images of Maduro being held by the United States, I thought it was AI, to be honest. I couldn’t believe it.”

Murillo, Olivo and Figueira have all welcomed Maduro’s capture.

“Now that he’s out – this dictator that did so much harm – it gives us hope that we can recuperate democracy, and our country,” Murillo claims. “It’s the start of something. So we’re very happy.”

But alongside the sense of hope, there is also uncertainty. With Maduro being held in the US, his deputy Delcy Rodríguez, who the BBC have described as an “avowed Chavista revolutionary”, has stepped up as acting president. Trump has spoken about his interactions with Rodríguez in positive terms – going as far as to call her a “terrific person.”

“We’re saying ‘we’re free’ in the sense that Maduro’s out – but we’re not really free,” reflects Olivo. “The regime is still in charge in Venezuela, and all his supporters are running the country at the moment.

“I spoke to my mum this morning and she was like, ‘There’s so much tension in the air,’” she continues. “So there is a sense of hope, because the main guy is gone – but there is a lot of uncertainty around how we’re going to get rid of the leftovers.”

Olivo also still fears for the safety of her family in Venezuela, where repression reportedly continues under the interim government – despite claims that they are “opening up to a new political moment”, as Rodríguez promises to continue releasing political prisoners.

“I was texting a morning message to my family on WhatsApp a week ago, and I was making a funny comment like, ‘It’s great to wake up in the morning and picture Maduro and his wife waking up in a cell,’” Olivo says. “And my sister and my mum were like, ‘No, no – let’s delete these messages.’ In Venezuela, policemen and the military have the right to stop you on the street, and if they check your WhatsApp or social media, and find any evidence that you are against the regime, they are entitled to bring you to jail for that.

“All of that gives you anxiety,” she adds. “So I’m afraid for what our families, and all the political prisoners, will have to go through, before they can have some relief.”

DROWNING AT SEA

Of course, many commentators have argued that “counting on President Trump for the freedom of Venezuela” – as opposition leader María Corina Machado said recently, after presenting him with her Nobel Peace Prize – is unlikely to end well.

“I feel sad for the small group of people from Venezuela who are shouting ‘up the USA,’” Irish civil rights activist Bernadette McAliskey remarked at a recent ‘Hands Off Venezuela’ rally. “You will live long enough, if you’re lucky, to swallow those words in your own tears…”

The way Murillo sees it, his fellow Venezuelans are mostly celebrating the fact “that something, at last, was done.”

“If you’re drowning at sea and somebody, anyone, lends you a hand to grab – you will take it,” he says. “Nothing was done by the international community, for years and years. So it’s the first time that we feel like something’s on the right track.

“Everyone is celebrating, but that doesn’t mean that we support Trump,” he adds. “It’s just a means to an end.”

Olivo shares a similar sentiment.

“We couldn’t find another way,” she states. “How else would it have happened? We’ve been trying through our own means – elections, peaceful protests – and so many people have died because of it.”

“And now, people are talking about international law,” Murillo resumes. “But the Venezuelans are saying, ‘Where was the international law when the students were killed in protests? And during what was called the ‘Maduro Diet’?’”

Looking to the future, Olivo says that Venezuelans would “of course love to see their own people running the country – whether that was to be María Corina Machado, or Edmundo González.”

“But we have to start with something first,” she continues. “Let’s clean the country from dictatorship, so that then there’s a space to run the country properly – a country where there’s freedom of speech, and where people can actually build their lives.

“What has happened, has opened a window to something,” she adds. “It could be something good, hopefully. It could be something bad. But it’s something.”