Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Exiled Venezuelans in Utah support President Donald Trump's efforts to pressure the Venezuelan president, some even backing military action to oust him.
- Hector Hernandez, a Venezuelan living in West Jordan, noted the chaotic living conditions for Venezuelans still in the country.
- The Trump administration has increased the U.S. military presence near Venezuela in recent weeks.
SALT LAKE CITY — As President Donald Trump ratchets up the pressure on Venezuela, reportedly mulling military action against the country's socialist leadership, he's got broad support among exiled and displaced Venezuelans in Utah, eager to see President Nicolás Maduro ousted.
"Because of everything happening — the political prisoners, the torture, the economy — Venezuela is in total chaos, and the citizens are in favor of change through military action. This is completely clear," said Hector Hernandez, now living in West Jordan. He fled Venezuela in 2021, facing persecution from Maduro's regime for his involvement with the nation's Democratic Action Party, which touts liberty and social justice.
Leanys Bermudez, originally from Maracaibo, Venezuela, and now operating a range of business ventures out of Murray, referenced the ouster of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega by invading U.S. forces in 1989.
"We have to do what has to be done so Maduro leaves, and if that involves an invasion, it'll have to be done, like what happened in Panama when they removed the Panamanian dictator," she said.
The socialist governments of Maduro and President Hugo Chávez before him have prompted around 8 million Venezuelans to leave the country, variously fleeing political persecution and seeking opportunity abroad as Venezuela's economy sputters. Most are in other Latin American and Caribbean countries, but as many as 770,000 were in the United States as of 2023, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
That presence, combined with frosty to nonexistent relations with Maduro's regime, has prompted the Trump administration to bolster the U.S. military presence in the Caribbean in recent weeks in a bid to pressure the Venezuelan leader.
According to various media reports and the U.S. government, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy's largest aircraft carrier, and other warships have deployed to the waters off South America, ostensibly to fight drug-trafficking. At the same time, U.S. forces have carried out 21 airstrikes against small vessels allegedly hauling drugs off Venezuela's coast, killing at least 82 people, according to the Military Times.
The New York Times, meantime, reported this week that Trump has given the OK for possible covert operations by U.S operatives in Venezuela against Maduro's government.
Mayra Molina, head of the Venezuelan Alliance in Utah, which advocates for the state's Venezuelan community, suspects more than 90% of Venezuelans in Utah favor Maduro's removal, though she doesn't want innocent Venezuelans to get hurt in the process.
José Guevara, who fled Venezuela during Chávez's tenure as president, fearing reprisal for his involvement with international groups like the World Bank, echoes that, as do Hernandez and others from the country in Utah.
"I think all Venezuelans, regardless of their political position, agree that Venezuela should be freed," said Guevara, now living in Lehi.
Adolfo Ortega, who left Venezuela in 2016 and now teaches math and science at Westlake High School in Saratoga Springs, said Venezuelans "fully support" the Trump administration in its efforts targeting Venezuela. Venezuelans have tried protesting to pressure Maduro out as well as ouster via elections, all to no avail, and he thinks force may be the only alternative.
"We know it wouldn't be an invasion against Venezuela. It'd be an action to remove the cancer that Mr. Maduro represents. We'd be very happy if we got help in removing this cancer," Ortega said.
Venezuelan opposition leaders and others say opposition presidential hopeful Edmundo González won presidential balloting last year but that Maduro stole the elections via fraud.
Guevara, similarly, wouldn't view U.S. military action in Venezuela as an attack on the nation's sovereignty, referencing the influence of other socialist countries in Venezuela under Chávez and Maduro.
"We lost sovereignty many years ago with the intervention of countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, Russia, China, even Middle Eastern countries," Guevara said. "We lost the independence of our country a long time ago."
Though many Venezuelans may favor Trump's pressure tactics targeting the Maduro government, that doesn't necessarily translate into support for all his initiatives aimed at Venezuela and Venezuelans. The Trump administration earlier this year stripped some 350,000 Venezuelans in the United States of temporary protected status, arguing in part that conditions have improved in Venezuela and they no longer merited special treatment.
Guevara and Molina, though, challenge that notion that Venezuela is safer and that the economy is improving. Even as Trump decries the Maduro regime, Guevara said, his administration is deporting Venezuelans "to a place where it's been shown it's a drug regime, an open dictatorship, a totalitarian regime."
While many suspect Maduro is involved in drug trafficking to generate funds to prop up his government, Molina and Guevara questioned the Trump administration's attacks on small boats allegedly hauling drugs off Venezuela's coast. Trump views the action as part of the war on drug trafficking, but they say the administration should instead focus on the leaders involved in the drug trade.
