For years, Jesus thought he might die in the streets of Caracas. Each time he joined a demonstration, he would call his family beforehand. “I didn’t know if I would come back,” he said. “Every protest felt like a goodbye.” Now 29, he lives in France, where he was granted political asylum.
The architect described a life in Venezuela shaped by fear and violence. “I saw elderly people beaten. I saw friends die,” he said. “Almost all of them have left the country.”
When news broke that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had been captured by US forces, Jesus was stunned. Like millions of Venezuelans in exile, he had never truly believed this moment would come – least of all in this way. “I’m not entirely comfortable with it, particularly from a legal standpoint,” he said. “But given Venezuela’s reality, there were few alternatives.”
'The beginning of the end'
For others, relief outweighed any hesitation. Maria*, a Venezuelan who has lived in the United Kingdom for nearly 30 years, told The Observers she has long been fiercely opposed to Maduro. For her, his capture marked a long-awaited turning point.
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“I know everything is not over,” she said. “This doesn't mean we are free yet: chavismo is still in power. But this is the beginning of the end.”
According to Maria, those opposing Maduro’s arrest are mainly people who benefited from the regime, or “ideologues who refuse to see the damage caused to the country over the past 25 years".
She believes a US‑led transition could help stabilise Venezuela’s battered economy – something that, in her view, has not happened in more than two decades. “We don’t have anyone today who is trustworthy or capable of governing the country,” she said. “The United States recognised that there is a political vacuum. A transition will take time, because corruption is massive, both within the regime and parts of the opposition.”
Maria said she would consider returning to Venezuela with her husband one day to “help rebuild” the country, where she still has family.
Celebrations abroad, fear at home
In Bogota, Colombia – home to one of the world’s largest Venezuelan diaspora – Derwin described scenes of celebration. “People went out to celebrate. I didn’t see anyone supporting Maduro.” He adds that online expressions of support for Maduro leave him baffled. “I don’t understand how that’s possible. These are the people who destroyed Venezuela.”
Several refugees, however, stressed that such celebrations are largely limited to those outside the country. “My people still cannot celebrate,” said Edgarlys Castaneda, a 27-year-old Venezuelan living in New York. A vocal opposition activist, she fled Venezuela after facing threats for her political engagement and spent several months in ICE detention in El Paso, Texas. She was released through habeas corpus and now lives under electronic monitoring in New York.
Edgarlys emphasises that the regime’s grip on power remains strong, highlighting the new laws criminalising sharing content perceived as favourable to Maduro’s capture. “Only a few political prisoners have been released,” she said. “Many remain in jail. Things haven’t changed much inside Venezuela – it may even be more dangerous now.”
‘We tried everything else’
For many exiles, support for US intervention follows years of failed attempts to bring change through protests and elections. Juan Jose Cardenas Lopez, a Venezuelan oceanographer now living in Spain, left the country in 2024, largely due to a lack of work. He saw Maduro’s removal as inevitable.
“Maduro is the leader of a criminal system that led our country into disaster,” he said, citing repression, restrictions on free speech, electoral fraud allegations and accusations of drug trafficking. “Faced with the inaction of international justice and multilateral organisations, intervention by a superior force was the only option left.”
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Cardenas Lopez believes Venezuela now faces a long transition that will require international support, particularly from Europe. While acknowledging that Washington acted in line with its geopolitical and economic interests, he said this does not invalidate the outcome.
“This has happened before,” he said. “Venezuela’s past economic development was largely linked to American industry. I don’t see another realistic option if the country is to recover in the short term and if people are to benefit.”
‘Only the beginning’
In Lyon, 20‑year‑old Samantha, whose family fled Venezuela in 2021 and was later granted political asylum in France, recalled the night the news broke. “My mother woke me up, everyone was awake that night,” she said. “When we realised Maduro had been captured, we cried, we danced, and we even opened a bottle of sangria.”
The initial joy was soon tempered by anxiety. “We have hope, but we don’t know what will happen next,” she said. “Trump has his interests, of course. But after so many deaths and failed attempts, we were desperate to get out of this situation.”
That ambivalence is echoed by former opposition figures now in exile.
Zeneida Gonzalez, 49, a lifelong political activist with the opposition party Vente Venezuela, fled the country in 2019 and now lives near Paris. She said constant surveillance, threats, and violence were an everyday reality for opponents of the regime. “Everyone in Venezuela knows someone who was tortured,” she said. “I have friends who were shot in the head just for protesting.”
She insisted that recent political prisoner releases – though limited – would not have happened without US pressure. “People talk about oil,” she said. “We talk about the dead.”
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For others, the capture of Maduro is just the beginning of a long road. Thanya Faverial, a former Venezuelan civil servant now working as a data project manager in France, recalled witnessing corruption and drug trafficking involving state-owned companies, alongside shortages so severe she struggled to find milk for her young child.
“Seeing those photos of Maduro on this plane felt like a Hollywood movie,” she said. “I cried both from joy and from the fear of being disappointed again.” She believes Maduro’s fall marks a rupture, but not a resolution. “This is a fracture in the dictatorship,” she said. “But some people who are even worse than Maduro are still in the government.”
*Her name has been changed at her request
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