Latin Americans across the globe express their worries after US military intervention in Venezuela<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Sonia Chang and J\u00f3se Cervantes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With many family members and friends living in Venezuela, Carmen Fuentes* is worried. \u201cMy friends have quit their WhatsApp groups to avoid getting caught or being sent to jail,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople are silent in Venezuela now. Police are checking people\u2019s phones on the street, even students\u2019 phones. People cannot use WhatsApp to talk about the government freely, \u201d Fuentes says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even after moving to Hong Kong in 1991 and running her pi\u00f1ata business, she is still afraid of getting into trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Moros is facing drug charges in a New York City court, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez is now serving as the acting president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is a mess in Venezuela now. The biggest problem in the country is the system,\u201d says Fuentes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe future of Venezuela remains uncertain,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverything is possible to be done by the U.S. No one can predict that the U.S. would capture the president of a country,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Fuentes, Bolivian university student Sofi Rojas* is also concerned about her friends in Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStreet 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,\u201d Rojas mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTaking the dictator out of the country does not solve any existing problems in Venezuela. Venezuelans are not freed from the corrupt system left behind,\u201d the 19-year-old student who opposes the military invasion says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d Rojas says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe military invasion in Venezuela is just the beginning\u2026any Latin American country could be next,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only Rojas, but many Latin Americans are upset by the U.S. involvement in Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am 100 per cent against the military invasion. The U.S. government is invading the sovereignty of Venezuela,\u201d says Xaime*, a Mexican business manager based in Shenzhen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am concerned about what the United States can do without any limitations from international organisations or international law,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI 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,\u201d Xaime says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat has been going on in Venezuela is a choice made by them many years ago by electing former president Hugo Ch\u00e1vez,\u201d he says, adding that while Maduro is deposed to the American justice system, the institutional skeleton of the dictatorship still remains in Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe 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\u2019s sovereignty,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf the United States is really concerned about helping Mexico against drug trafficking\u2026 Go for it! The Mexican government has not been able to do so in decades,\u201d Xaime says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *Names changed at interviewees\u2019 request<\/p>\n\n\n\n Edited By Swara Kamble <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sub-edited by Pauline Yau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Latin Americans across the globe express their worries after US military intervention in Venezuela By Sonia Chang and J\u00f3se Cervantes With many family members and friends living in Venezuela, Carmen Fuentes* is worried. \u201cMy friends have quit their WhatsApp groups to avoid getting caught or being sent to jail,\u201d she says. For decades, the Venezuelan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":26262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2321,2322,7],"tags":[2335,128,2332,2329,2334],"class_list":["post-26243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-176","category-march-2026","category-periscope","tag-latin-americans","tag-politics","tag-us-attack-on-venezuela","tag-venezuela","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26243"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26274,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26243\/revisions\/26274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}