OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
2:22 PM – Saturday, January 3, 2026
A diaspora of Venezuelans has taken to the streets to celebrate Socialist Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro’s capture at the hands of the United States.
Since early on Saturday morning, Venezuelans have come out in droves to support the Trump administration’s swift handling of Maduro, the socialist dictator who is indicted in the U.S. for narcoterrorism, as he is accused of leading the Cartel of the Suns and flooding the country with cocaine.
South Florida hosts one of the largest Venezuelan communities in the U.S. In heavily Venezuelan Doral, Florida, a city west of Miami, Venezuelans and Venezuelan Americans partied with loud music, car horns and dancing.
“Viva Venezuela libre!” one man waving a Venezuelan flag yelled as he drove by El Arepazo, a Venezuelan arepa shop, which had been busy with supporters since around 4:00 a.m.
Mariannys Milano, 45, wiped away tears as she exclaimed, “I can’t believe it. I have so many emotions. I feel like throwing up. I feel joy.”
Milano said she had hardly slept after calling and texting relatives in eastern Venezuela all night.
“The good thing is that they took out Maduro,” said Abner Márquez, 27, of Lake Worth. “Now we have to see who in the government is going to take power, and what they are going to do.”
President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would oversee Venezuela until a proper and justified transition of power can be made. Meanwhile, Maduro’s hand-picked Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has reportedly been sworn in as the interim president.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Tibisay Mejía, 51, who immigrated to the United States in 2015. “But this is the beginning.”
Jesús Naranjo, 57, left Venezuela in 1998, the same year that Maduro’s predecessor former President Hugo Chávez of the United socialist Party of Venezuela took power.
“I support his actions toward Venezuela,” said Naranjo of President Trump, who he otherwise dislikes, but he said, “had the courage to do what had to be done.”
In the Queens borough of New York City, Supporters also gathered at the Budare Café in Jackson Heights.
“Today this food is for celebrating,” said Sebastián Sánchez, 26, who had a Venezuelan flag tied around his neck like a cape as he ate a pabellón arepa and sipped black coffee. “It’s typical Venezuelan food and it’s a very special day. Living here in the United States, I am very privileged, but my family came here looking for that freedom that we didn’t have in our country, so seeing that there is a new future in Venezuela makes me very happy.”
In Santiago, the capital of Chile, chants could be heard in the streets in jubilation.
“We are free. We are all happy that the dictatorship has fallen and that we have a free country,” said Khaty Yanez, a Venezuelan woman who spent the last seven years in Chile.
Venezuelans also gathered in Peru’s capital of Lima.
“Knowing that my dad was alive to see the fall of Nicolas Maduro is very emotional. I would like to see his face,” said Venezuelan migrant Milagros Ortega, whose parents are still in Venezuela. She also said she hoped to return to the country.
“For those of us living in exile, it is an immense joy,” said Cynthia Diaz at a small march convened in Ecuador’s capital Quito. “Venezuelans, sooner rather than later, will return to Venezuela – to a free Venezuela, to a Venezuela that is a land of greatness.”
Venezuelans living in Panama were photographed celebrating with Venezuelan flags and masks of President Trump.
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