Forced to emigrate, unable to vote: Venezuelans hope for an end to a quarter-century of socialist rule

MIAMI – Patriotic Venezuelans hoping for the end of a quarter-century of socialist rule met on Sunday at Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater, outside the consulate in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, at Jose Marti Park in Miami’s Little Havana, and at restaurants in Doral.

The opposition living in Miami-Dade County blames the United Socialist Party of Venezuela for creating the desperation in the oil-rich country that has prompted more than 7.7 million to turn into refugees in need of international assistance.

They blame Nicolás Maduro and his administration for failing economic policies; prevailing corruption; blind-sided alliances with Cuba, Russia, and China; and media and political repression. Their common chant against Maduro’s third term: “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”

The ruling party — campaigning with triumphal rallies for Maduro to stay in power for six more years — controlled most of the electoral process. Officials opened the polls from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., on the day Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor, was born.

Attorney Maureen L. Porras, a Nicaraguan-American Doral councilwoman, stood by Rafael Pineyro to support the persecuted who couldn’t return to Venezuela to participate in the electoral process.

“Today we’re closing a chapter, a chapter of a regime that has killed thousands of people,” said Pineyro, who was born in Caracas, left Venezuela for Miami when he was 15, and was elected to serve as a Doral councilman in 2022.

Chávez, a military strongman with promises of populist reform, was in power for about 14 years, and after dying of cancer in 2013, left his Bolivarian revolution to Maduro, a former bus driver for the Caracas Metro company turned unionist.

The opposition alleges corruption was behind Maduro’s reelection in 2018. The U.S. and a group of allies declared it as illegitimate. Many expected the same from a ruling party obsessed with controlling every branch of government.

Edmundo González, a retired diplomat and academic, was the opposition’s candidate after Maduro’s supporters in the Supreme Court invalidated Maria Corina Machado’s candidacy and banned her from running for office for 15 years.

“I’m doing this for my kids and for my grandchildren; I want them to come back, the ones who are living abroad,” said Amelia Perez, who ventured out to vote in Caracas.

Machado, 56, campaigned for González, 74, a political newcomer who wore a white long-sleeve guayabera and jeans to vote. Their rallies across Venezuela always included the same “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” chant that echoed in Miami-Dade County on Sunday.

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