Latin Americans across the globe express their worries after US military intervention in Venezuela
By Sonia Chang and Jóse Cervantes
With many family members and friends living in Venezuela, Carmen Fuentes* is worried. “My friends have quit their WhatsApp groups to avoid getting caught or being sent to jail,” she says.
For decades, the Venezuelan government has kept a close eye on what is said and allowed to be broadcasted in the country. Nothing has changed after the U.S. military intervention in January.
“People are silent in Venezuela now. Police are checking people’s phones on the street, even students’ phones. People cannot use WhatsApp to talk about the government freely, ” Fuentes says.
Even after moving to Hong Kong in 1991 and running her piñata business, she is still afraid of getting into trouble.
While former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros is facing drug charges in a New York City court, Delcy Rodríguez is now serving as the acting president.
“It is a mess in Venezuela now. The biggest problem in the country is the system,” says Fuentes.
“The future of Venezuela remains uncertain,” she says.
“Everything is possible to be done by the U.S. No one can predict that the U.S. would capture the president of a country,” she says.
Calling Hong Kong her home, Fuentes says she has no plan of returning to Venezuela because Hong Kong gives her the sense of safety and an abundant life which her hometown could not offer.
Like Fuentes, Bolivian university student Sofi Rojas* is also concerned about her friends in Venezuela.
“Street controls and phone checks have been more frequent. People who say bad things about Nicolas Maduro are put behind bars. It is extreme and scary,” Rojas mentions.
“Taking the dictator out of the country does not solve any existing problems in Venezuela. Venezuelans are not freed from the corrupt system left behind,” the 19-year-old student who opposes the military invasion says.
“The interest of the U.S. is clear. Donald Trump has long planned to control the oil in Venezuela. The military invasion was just a means used by the U.S. to an end. It was never about the life of Venezuelans,” Rojas says.
“The military invasion in Venezuela is just the beginning…any Latin American country could be next,” she adds.
Not only Rojas, but many Latin Americans are upset by the U.S. involvement in Venezuela.
“I am 100 per cent against the military invasion. The U.S. government is invading the sovereignty of Venezuela,” says Xaime*, a Mexican business manager based in Shenzhen.
Lambasting the U.S. military operation inside Venezuela against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and the arrest of its president, Xaime criticises Trump for threatening Mexico and Greenland with similar actions.
“I am concerned about what the United States can do without any limitations from international organisations or international law,” he says.
Having arrived in China more than a decade ago, the businessman says he tried to build bridges between Mexico and other countries even before setting foot in Asia.
“I always say no when someone proposes to talk about politics with friends or other outlets, I draw the line to focus on my job and the quality of it,” Xaime says.
Like many other Latin Americans in China, Xaime has received many questions from curious or intrigued people since the U.S. attacked Venezuela in early January. He thinks the U.S. intervention is absurd.
“What has been going on in Venezuela is a choice made by them many years ago by electing former president Hugo Chávez,” he says, adding that while Maduro is deposed to the American justice system, the institutional skeleton of the dictatorship still remains in Venezuela.
“We live in a two-faced world, where some countries can act in the wrong way and still be supported. One thing I am 100 per cent in disagreement with is the violation of a country’s sovereignty,” he says.
Despite his strong opinions against the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, he thinks it is possible for the Mexican government and the U.S. government to collaborate as an alternative to fighting drug cartels across Mexico.
“If the United States is really concerned about helping Mexico against drug trafficking… Go for it! The Mexican government has not been able to do so in decades,” Xaime says.
*Names changed at interviewees’ request
Edited By Swara Kamble
Sub-edited by Pauline Yau
