Venezuelans in the United States and abroad publicly celebrated after reports emerged that the U.S. military had captured Venezuela’s longtime leader Nicolás Maduro, marking a significant development in the country’s political crisis and its long-running tensions with Washington. Social media posts, local news reports, and public statements reflected strong reactions from Venezuelan communities who have followed events in their home country closely, often from abroad after years of economic instability, political turmoil, and large-scale emigration.
In Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Locally account posted on X that members of the local Venezuelan community planned a public gathering to mark the news. “Venezuelans in Las Vegas will be throwing a ‘Venezuela Libre’ party tonight to celebrate the capture of Nicolás Maduro,” the post said. Similar reactions were reported in other parts of the United States, where Venezuelan expatriate communities have grown in recent years as millions left the country amid shortages, power outages, and declining public services.
Filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza also shared a video on X featuring a young Venezuelan man speaking to Local10 News about the significance of the moment. In the video, the man credited U.S. President Donald Trump with opening a path for change in Venezuela. “All eyes on Venezuela. This [are] historical news. This is history in the making,” the man said. “I mean, my chest, it feels like it’s going to explode with joy because … I mean, before I was even born, there had been struggles, my family has been fighting for so many years…..before I was even here. They have told me about it, they told me about a time where democracy existed and now, I can finally look forward to that.” Local10 News identified the man as Edgar and reported that he was among “hundreds of Venezuelans” who gathered in Doral, Florida, to celebrate news of Maduro’s capture.
Other reactions highlighted the personal impact Venezuela’s political and economic decline has had on families who left the country. Noah Kagan, chief executive of AppSumo.com, wrote on X that his wife and her family are from Venezuela and described the news as deeply meaningful to them. “My wife, her family and all her friends are from Venezuela,” Kagan wrote. “This is the GREATEST thing that has happened to their country in 25+ years. A total dictatorship had Maduro who was the driver of the previous president running a literal drug cartel out of the country.” He added that Venezuela had once been among the wealthiest countries in South America but had become a place he said he could not safely visit. “He turned the #1 wealthiest country in South America, #1 country for oil reserves, #1 country for Miss Americas, #1 country for tallest waterfall and SO many more special things…Into a place that I personally cannot even visit for fear of getting kidnapped and ransom,” Kagan wrote, also citing shortages of basic medicine and frequent power outages.
In an interview with NewsNation, Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a Venezuelan immigrant, said the celebrations reflected years of frustration among Venezuelans who left the country. “Venezuelans are tired of 26 years of a regime that forced nearly one-third of us to leave our country,” Di Martino said. “This is why I have no immediate relatives in Venezuela, because we all ended up leaving in the last ten years.” His comments aligned with international estimates showing that millions of Venezuelans have emigrated over the past decade, reshaping migration patterns across Latin America and the United States.
Reuters also reported reactions from Venezuelans living outside the U.S. One Venezuelan woman, “who has spent the last seven years in Chile,” said she was “happy that the dictatorship has fallen,” according to the news agency. Such reactions underscore how developments inside Venezuela continue to resonate across borders, particularly among those who left because of political conditions or economic collapse.
The public celebrations followed an announcement by President Trump early Saturday that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been taken into U.S. custody. “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.” The statement marked the first official confirmation from the U.S. government regarding Maduro’s reported capture.
U.S. officials said the action followed longstanding allegations surrounding Maduro’s rule and governance. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and Flores “have been indicted in the Southern District of New York” and that “Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.” U.S. authorities have previously accused Maduro of maintaining power through elections they described as illegitimate, while international observers have debated the political and legal implications of U.S. involvement in Venezuela’s internal affairs.
