Posting as someone with direct family ties to Venezuela.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

What’s honestly sickening to me is how tribal this has become.

So many people are reacting based on who they think they’re supposed to hate or defend, not on what Venezuelans have actually lived through. If your family had been there—if you’d watched them lose everything, if you’d worried daily about their safety, if you’d lived under that level of oppression—you would not be treating this like a thought experiment or a team sport.

For years, we’ve been sending remittances—boxes of food, medicine, money—just so family members could survive. Not thrive. Survive. That’s the reality people gloss over while posting hot takes from the comfort of their homes.

This outrage feels hollow when it ignores the human cost. When it erases the people who were beaten, silenced, imprisoned, or forced to flee. When it pretends moral purity matters more than ending suffering.

If this were about your parents, your siblings, your cousins living under that system, your tone would be very different.

This isn’t about left or right.
It’s about people who want their country—and their dignity—back.

Tribalism has rotted the conversation. And watching people minimize real pain because it doesn’t fit their politics is heartbreaking.

Many families and countries unfortunately live under oppressive regimes. You live in the US, and are writing as if no other country has these issues. They do. Why did Trump ‘help’ Venezuela? oil. Do I think you are going to stop needing to send remittance? Of course not. This was not for humanitarian reasons. Trump doesn’t care how the people of Venezuela have suffered.

Not OP, but I have family in Panama so have been hearing about the crisis for the past 10 years because when I visit there are so many Venezuelan refugees there. While it is true many families and countries live under oppressive regimes, the humanitarian disaster in Venezuela is on a whole other level.

7 MILLION people have fled- that is more than fled Syria. Over 20% of the population has had to flee Venezuela many because they couldn't even get one meal a day to eat. Kids have been starving in Venezuela. Venezuela’s bout with hunger is striking given that the nation had one of the highest standards of living in the region just a few decades ago thanks to its formerly abundant oil wealth.

There are plenty of people who hate Trump but are pleased something was finally done.

Thanks for sharing your perspective. It makes me feel better that others can recognize the desperation in Venezuela. Surely the US is going to benefit from this, but if there’s such a thing as trickle down economics, then the people will prosper too.
-OP

[Anonymous]

Nobody argues that Maduro is a good guy. That doesn't mean we should address his criminality in a criminal way ourselves.

[Anonymous]

Why do you think we don't get it? We do. But it's not good for global stability to have the US behaving like Russia and China. And the US involvement is NOT AT ALL calculated to make Venezuelans any safer. They just want to steal more oil. You think your wife's goals are any closer thanks to this?

[Anonymous]

Op, do you have any insight into how the current administration plans to stabilize the situation in Venezuela? From what I’ve seen so far, the current VP has been left in place and Trump verbally dismissed Machado. Any clue what will happen next? A power vacuum is very dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, do you have any insight into how the current administration plans to stabilize the situation in Venezuela? From what I’ve seen so far, the current VP has been left in place and Trump verbally dismissed Machado. Any clue what will happen next? A power vacuum is very dangerous.

No idea what is going to happen. Wife and I disagree with how it leadership is established.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife is Venezuelan. She desperately wants to be able to go back someday—to visit safely, to see family, to recognize her own country again. Right now, that’s not possible. Much of her family is current or former military, and they want exactly what civilians want: freedom from an oppressive regime that destroyed their country from the inside.

She does not like Trump. Let’s get that out of the way. But let’s also stop pretending Venezuela is a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It’s not.

Under Maduro, people were run over by armored vehicles. Protesters were shot. Elections were a farce. The country became a narco-state while ordinary people starved or fled. That reality didn’t change depending on who was in the White House.

And for those suddenly clutching pearls about U.S. involvement—Biden continued dealings with Venezuelan oil despite repeated warnings from human-rights organizations. So please spare us the selective outrage.

China and Iran didn’t embed themselves in Venezuela out of goodwill. They wanted oil, minerals, leverage. Everyone knows this. Acting shocked now is disingenuous.

Here’s what’s missing from most of these takes: the majority of Venezuelans want the regime gone, even if that comes with hard compromises. They understand the cost because they’ve already paid it.

This isn’t about loving Trump.
It’s about wanting Venezuela back.

It’s also not about loving Maduro, it’s about doing things legally and for right reasons, not illegally introducing even more corruption into the mix. The only people that will benefit in the end will be billionaires and corrupt opportunists. I’m sorry that you can’t see this.

This completely opens the door for this to happen globally, friends or foes.

+100. The fact that OP thinks that now the situation will improve for their family shows how disillusioned they are. Things were bad and will get much worse now. There’s no messiah from the Trump administration coming to help out the people of Venezuela.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, OP. I detest Trump and would probably be considered a paradigmatic woke liberal. But I too have family ties to Venezuela and agree that most who are commenting are missing the desperation with which most Venezuelans wanted relief from Maduro’s brutal regime. No matter how that relief was delivered.

Unfortunately, I think any relief and optimism will be short-lived because the administration is going to totally screw this up in every conceivable way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of countries have oppressive regimes that persecute citizens. No one else is sitting on the world’s biggest oil reserve though. 🤔

h

+1
If this was about drugs, we’d be talking about Mexico.

Or Colombia where 80% of the cocaine comes from not Venezuela.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

What’s honestly sickening to me is how tribal this has become.

So many people are reacting based on who they think they’re supposed to hate or defend, not on what Venezuelans have actually lived through. If your family had been there—if you’d watched them lose everything, if you’d worried daily about their safety, if you’d lived under that level of oppression—you would not be treating this like a thought experiment or a team sport.

For years, we’ve been sending remittances—boxes of food, medicine, money—just so family members could survive. Not thrive. Survive. That’s the reality people gloss over while posting hot takes from the comfort of their homes.

This outrage feels hollow when it ignores the human cost. When it erases the people who were beaten, silenced, imprisoned, or forced to flee. When it pretends moral purity matters more than ending suffering.

If this were about your parents, your siblings, your cousins living under that system, your tone would be very different.

This isn’t about left or right.
It’s about people who want their country—and their dignity—back.

Tribalism has rotted the conversation. And watching people minimize real pain because it doesn’t fit their politics is heartbreaking.

Many families and countries unfortunately live under oppressive regimes. You live in the US, and are writing as if no other country has these issues. They do. Why did Trump ‘help’ Venezuela? oil. Do I think you are going to stop needing to send remittance? Of course not. This was not for humanitarian reasons. Trump doesn’t care how the people of Venezuela have suffered.

Not OP, but I have family in Panama so have been hearing about the crisis for the past 10 years because when I visit there are so many Venezuelan refugees there. While it is true many families and countries live under oppressive regimes, the humanitarian disaster in Venezuela is on a whole other level.

7 MILLION people have fled- that is more than fled Syria. Over 20% of the population has had to flee Venezuela many because they couldn't even get one meal a day to eat. Kids have been starving in Venezuela. Venezuela’s bout with hunger is striking given that the nation had one of the highest standards of living in the region just a few decades ago thanks to its formerly abundant oil wealth.

There are plenty of people who hate Trump but are pleased something was finally done.

Can you give a timeline of the 7 million people who have fled Venezuela? Did most of them flee because of Chávez/Maduro or is it because of the US-led sanctions/embargo on Venezuela that caused the economy to collapse?

The purpose of sanctions is to agitate domestic discontent because everyone knows that sanctions only hurt the ordinary people. When people get restless, more draconian laws need to be enforced. Look at 2025 America to see exactly how this works. Obviously 2026 America is looking to be much worse with Chump starting fires in the rug all over the world for him to heroically put out.

People can debate all day about who is good and who is bad, but when outside states meddle in the domestic affairs of sovereign nations, the finger pointing is not just "you" and "me", but also "they".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

What’s honestly sickening to me is how tribal this has become.

So many people are reacting based on who they think they’re supposed to hate or defend, not on what Venezuelans have actually lived through. If your family had been there—if you’d watched them lose everything, if you’d worried daily about their safety, if you’d lived under that level of oppression—you would not be treating this like a thought experiment or a team sport.

For years, we’ve been sending remittances—boxes of food, medicine, money—just so family members could survive. Not thrive. Survive. That’s the reality people gloss over while posting hot takes from the comfort of their homes.

This outrage feels hollow when it ignores the human cost. When it erases the people who were beaten, silenced, imprisoned, or forced to flee. When it pretends moral purity matters more than ending suffering.

If this were about your parents, your siblings, your cousins living under that system, your tone would be very different.

This isn’t about left or right.
It’s about people who want their country—and their dignity—back.

Tribalism has rotted the conversation. And watching people minimize real pain because it doesn’t fit their politics is heartbreaking.

Many families and countries unfortunately live under oppressive regimes. You live in the US, and are writing as if no other country has these issues. They do. Why did Trump ‘help’ Venezuela? oil. Do I think you are going to stop needing to send remittance? Of course not. This was not for humanitarian reasons. Trump doesn’t care how the people of Venezuela have suffered.

Not OP, but I have family in Panama so have been hearing about the crisis for the past 10 years because when I visit there are so many Venezuelan refugees there. While it is true many families and countries live under oppressive regimes, the humanitarian disaster in Venezuela is on a whole other level.

7 MILLION people have fled- that is more than fled Syria. Over 20% of the population has had to flee Venezuela many because they couldn't even get one meal a day to eat. Kids have been starving in Venezuela. Venezuela’s bout with hunger is striking given that the nation had one of the highest standards of living in the region just a few decades ago thanks to its formerly abundant oil wealth.

There are plenty of people who hate Trump but are pleased something was finally done.

The humanitarian disaster is on a whole other level in:
Gaza
Haiti
Mali

I wonder why we chose to help Venezuela instead of our much closer neighbor Haiti?

Was just going to post about Haiti. Not to mention all the other countries where there are humanitarian disasters.

We aren't involved in those places because they don't have resources (Trump) wants and big business wants, that's why.

Poor, starving people have no value and don't deserve anything, at least according to this administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife is Venezuelan. She desperately wants to be able to go back someday—to visit safely, to see family, to recognize her own country again. Right now, that’s not possible. Much of her family is current or former military, and they want exactly what civilians want: freedom from an oppressive regime that destroyed their country from the inside.

She does not like Trump. Let’s get that out of the way. But let’s also stop pretending Venezuela is a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It’s not.

Under Maduro, people were run over by armored vehicles. Protesters were shot. Elections were a farce. The country became a narco-state while ordinary people starved or fled. That reality didn’t change depending on who was in the White House.

And for those suddenly clutching pearls about U.S. involvement—Biden continued dealings with Venezuelan oil despite repeated warnings from human-rights organizations. So please spare us the selective outrage.

China and Iran didn’t embed themselves in Venezuela out of goodwill. They wanted oil, minerals, leverage. Everyone knows this. Acting shocked now is disingenuous.

Here’s what’s missing from most of these takes: the majority of Venezuelans want the regime gone, even if that comes with hard compromises. They understand the cost because they’ve already paid it.

This isn’t about loving Trump.
It’s about wanting Venezuela back.

Trump isn't actually going to make things better. Understand that. It is still about foreign influence and exploitation. If trump were serious, he would have taken out the entire regime and installed the opposition leader. He didn't do that and isn't close to doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

What’s honestly sickening to me is how tribal this has become.

So many people are reacting based on who they think they’re supposed to hate or defend, not on what Venezuelans have actually lived through. If your family had been there—if you’d watched them lose everything, if you’d worried daily about their safety, if you’d lived under that level of oppression—you would not be treating this like a thought experiment or a team sport.

For years, we’ve been sending remittances—boxes of food, medicine, money—just so family members could survive. Not thrive. Survive. That’s the reality people gloss over while posting hot takes from the comfort of their homes.

This outrage feels hollow when it ignores the human cost. When it erases the people who were beaten, silenced, imprisoned, or forced to flee. When it pretends moral purity matters more than ending suffering.

If this were about your parents, your siblings, your cousins living under that system, your tone would be very different.

This isn’t about left or right.
It’s about people who want their country—and their dignity—back.

Tribalism has rotted the conversation. And watching people minimize real pain because it doesn’t fit their politics is heartbreaking.

Many families and countries unfortunately live under oppressive regimes. You live in the US, and are writing as if no other country has these issues. They do. Why did Trump ‘help’ Venezuela? oil. Do I think you are going to stop needing to send remittance? Of course not. This was not for humanitarian reasons. Trump doesn’t care how the people of Venezuela have suffered.

Not OP, but I have family in Panama so have been hearing about the crisis for the past 10 years because when I visit there are so many Venezuelan refugees there. While it is true many families and countries live under oppressive regimes, the humanitarian disaster in Venezuela is on a whole other level.

7 MILLION people have fled- that is more than fled Syria. Over 20% of the population has had to flee Venezuela many because they couldn't even get one meal a day to eat. Kids have been starving in Venezuela. Venezuela’s bout with hunger is striking given that the nation had one of the highest standards of living in the region just a few decades ago thanks to its formerly abundant oil wealth.

There are plenty of people who hate Trump but are pleased something was finally done.

The humanitarian disaster is on a whole other level in:
Gaza
Haiti
Mali

I wonder why we chose to help Venezuela instead of our much closer neighbor Haiti?

Was just going to post about Haiti. Not to mention all the other countries where there are humanitarian disasters.

We aren't involved in those places because they don't have resources (Trump) wants and big business wants, that's why.

Poor, starving people have no value and don't deserve anything, at least according to this administration.

^ And that includes the poor, starving people right here in the good ole U.S. of A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP AGAIN:
Two things can be true at the same time.

Yes, this is about human rights. About political prisoners, sham elections, protesters run over by armored vehicles, and families forced to flee or rely on remittances just to survive.

And yes, it’s also about international security and oil.

Venezuela sits on enormous resources. The U.S. helped build much of that oil infrastructure decades ago, when Venezuela was a functioning partner with one of the most advanced energy systems in the world. That system wasn’t “sanctioned into collapse”—it was gutted by corruption, politicization, and a regime that rewarded loyalty over competence.

Pretending China and Iran embedded themselves there out of altruism is laughable. They wanted oil, minerals, leverage, and influence in the Western Hemisphere. That matters whether you’re progressive or conservative.

This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue. Biden continued Venezuelan oil dealings despite repeated human-rights warnings. Trump taking action doesn’t magically erase the reality on the ground.

For families like ours—sending remittances, shipping boxes of food and medicine, hoping one day it’s safe to return—this isn’t abstract. It’s lived experience.

You don’t have to deny strategic interests to care about human rights.
And you don’t have to ignore human suffering to acknowledge strategic interests.

Refusing to admit both is exactly how the conversation gets dumbed down.

What's confusing me about your post (and many comments from Venezuelans) is why are you feeling so optimistic about human rights? I understand that Maduro was a monster, and in that sense his abduction at least offers a glimmer of hope. But nothing I've heard has suggested that conditions will improve in Vz after his departure. The same people are in power. The Chavist paramilitaries are still blocking roads and enforcing loyalty. The economic system is the same.

This isn't "Trump will get the oil in exchange for an improved human rights situation on the ground". Trump doesn't give a rats ass about human rights, and he'll make no demands on the new government to improve the domestic situation in the country.

There is much uncertainty surrounding the near future in Venezuela and especially so with an incompetent American POTUS running the show but the first step in getting people out from underneath an oppressive dictator is to remove the dictator. There will be inevitable challenges with steps 2 and 3 but Venezuelans celebrating step 1 is completely understandable.

I am hopeful that by removing maduro business and tourism will return to Venezuela, providing stable economy and an opportunity for future prosperity for the people.

And hoping that the thousands that currently live in Trinidad return to their beautiful country permanently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a good list of countries that we can invade to help overthrow oppressive regimes? While we are at it, maybe even add those countries that are committing human rights violations too.

Unless they have oil Repugs don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife is Venezuelan. She desperately wants to be able to go back someday—to visit safely, to see family, to recognize her own country again. Right now, that’s not possible. Much of her family is current or former military, and they want exactly what civilians want: freedom from an oppressive regime that destroyed their country from the inside.

She does not like Trump. Let’s get that out of the way. But let’s also stop pretending Venezuela is a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It’s not.

Under Maduro, people were run over by armored vehicles. Protesters were shot. Elections were a farce. The country became a narco-state while ordinary people starved or fled. That reality didn’t change depending on who was in the White House.

And for those suddenly clutching pearls about U.S. involvement—Biden continued dealings with Venezuelan oil despite repeated warnings from human-rights organizations. So please spare us the selective outrage.

China and Iran didn’t embed themselves in Venezuela out of goodwill. They wanted oil, minerals, leverage. Everyone knows this. Acting shocked now is disingenuous.

Here’s what’s missing from most of these takes: the majority of Venezuelans want the regime gone, even if that comes with hard compromises. They understand the cost because they’ve already paid it.

This isn’t about loving Trump.
It’s about wanting Venezuela back.

Trump is there to take the oil and he is not going to give Venezuela any royalties. He does not give a rats ass about the Venezuelan people. Listen to what he is saying.

US military and contractors occupation of Venezuela will be brutal. The US military has no rules of engagement. Look at Gaza that is what is coming.

Oh and your wife will be rounded up and deported. Stephen Miller played a big part in this.

I’m sorry you feel so strongly about deporting people that are here legally.

Sorry you refuse to listen to what Trump is saying and doing. Bye bye!