While the world slept, news of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s extradition on January 3 didn’t hesitate to spark geopolitical drama on social media. A theatrical storm was brewing as the world scrambled to understand what was unfolding.

News outlets, mainstream and independent, rushed to give their interpretations of the United States' involvement in Maduro’s extradition.

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But this local Venezuelan has his own interpretation and his letter from the heart is worth the read. ‍

A Letter from a Local Venezuelan
We are a Venezuelan family, reduced from six to three, because three of our children had to practically flee the country due to the hunger, repression, and absolute harassment of the Venezuelan population by the dictatorship.

We have lived through the communist tragedy in Venezuela from the very moment that Army Lieutenant Hugo Chávez failed in his coup attempt on February 4, 1992. We then watched with utter astonishment as President Caldera dismissed the criminal case against him in March 1994, thus allowing him to run in the 1998 presidential elections, which he won, taking office on February 2, 1999.

From that very day, in the same style as Hitler, who used democracy to destroy democracy, Chávez began dismantling every democratic barrier that attempted to constitutionally control his government.

Around 2010, he achieved total control of all Venezuelan public powers, effectively burying the constitution and the human rights of Venezuelans.

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Since that tragic year of 2010, people began to flee the country almost en masse, because staying meant watching their future shrink year after year.

Now, from here, we are observing what some American citizens are thinking, or speculating about: “what we Venezuelans think about Trump extracting the dictator, Maduro.”

Today, I want to answer that question with absolute sincerity, in a simple way, and without any fuss on my part. ‍

A Deep Sense of Relief
The vast majority of Venezuelans feel a deep sense of relief, one that only a truly good Venezuelan could understand, and it's not because we love President Trump, nor because we believe the United States is doing this out of pure love for freedom.

And we are not naive about Venezuela's geopolitical impact on our hemisphere, on our oil, and the power all of this generates.

We feel somewhat relieved because we have experienced something our American friends have never experienced: a country where almost everything has stopped working, where elections produce whatever results the dictatorship wants, where money irretrievably loses its value almost weekly.

Regarding those who think or say, "I see that not all Venezuelans agree with the extraction the Maduro," I would like to acknowledge that there is indeed a minority that disagrees. And that minority that the dictatorship's propaganda portrays is made up of several million Venezuelans who have been driven into such extreme poverty that their survival depends on blind obedience and absolute loyalty to the dictator's will.

The Venezuelan Government's Grip on Dependence
These millions of Venezuelans are forced to rely on a food box, and some subsidies provided by the government.

It's a box containing rice, pasta, and oil, and sometimes the food arrives expired. This box, which arrives irregularly, is blatantly used as an instrument of social control.

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Currently, in WhatsApp groups in Venezuela, this message is endlessly repeated: "If this government falls, this box will never return, and you'll also lose your subsidy."

The misery to which these people have subjected the Venezuelan population is so overwhelming that people aren't defending the system because they believe in it; they're defending it because they fear losing the only thing that separates them from starvation.

Throughout these years, some politicians opposed the system, but that opposition was never free, informed, or dignified. It was coerced, infiltrated, and corrupted by the dictatorship. The only political leader who, during these 27 years, maintained integrity and consistency was María Corina Machado.

Life Under Maduro
Now, let me explain what we have experienced since Maduro took power in 2013 (after Chávez's death).

Since Maduro took power, Venezuela has lost approximately 90% of its real economy. We've been experiencing relentless hyperinflation for several years now, where prices don't rise annually or even monthly; they rise almost daily. Salaries have lost their value to Bs. 130 ($0.40), and this is the same amount pensioners receive.

Venezuelans Still Believe in Democracy
Another narrative circulating around the world is: "that the Venezuelan people didn't fight hard enough for their freedom." The truth is that we have protested and marched thousands of times here (this is not an exaggeration). And during these protests over the years, thousands of people have been killed, and tens of thousands more have been and continue to be illegally imprisoned as political prisoners.

Here, we have never stopped voting, and we do so because we truly believe in democracy.

In 2015, the opposition won the parliamentary elections by an overwhelming majority. Then the dictatorship used the remaining branches of government to effectively nullify the parliament's actions.

In July 2024, we voted again, and the opposition, represented by diplomat Edmundo González, won those elections overwhelmingly, with a margin of almost 70-30.

The dictatorship ignored the result and once again used the remaining branches of government to usurp the presidency.

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Throughout these years, we, the democratic people, have remained committed to the law and to peaceful protest, while the dictatorship's strategy has always been to use criminal groups to violently and brutally crush any attempt at peaceful dissent. ‍

The Media Strategy
The dictatorship's media strategy has always been to portray this reality in reverse. They try to tell the world that the images of violence they present are generated by the democratic opposition, when in reality they are the ones infiltrating peaceful protests with masked groups who "disappear" when the government arrives to repress "the violent ones."

During all these years, more than eight million Venezuelans fled the country, meaning that roughly 30% of the population left. Families were torn apart, children grew up without their parents or grandparents, and entire cities and towns aged sadly.

Liberal Americans are Severely Mislead
So when some of my American friends or brothers say, "Our intervention in Venezuela is wrong," I ask them with much affection and appreciation to please understand that Venezuela has been occupied by Iran, China, Cuba, and Russia for several years now. They use our beloved country as a haven for terrorism, drug trafficking, and as a foothold in the Americas. This is not opposition propaganda; this is a reality that I can attest to from deep within Venezuela—I tell you that this is the purest truth.

No sane Venezuelan celebrates bombs, humiliation, or chaos.

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What we react with joy to is the possibility that a door may finally open to a return to democracy, to the reconstruction of our country, to being able to breathe freely again.

We are more than clear that the United States has its natural interests: oil, minerals, resources with which God has blessed Venezuela in extraordinary and abundant ways.

We Venezuelans are not fools; it's just that almost all of us over the age of 35 remember a time when Venezuela was functional, prosperous, and connected to the world, when people emigrated to our country instead of fleeing it, when dreaming of a future of personal or family progress didn't seem impossible within Venezuela.

My dear American friend or brother, if the Venezuelan celebrations seem strange or odd to you, the most pertinent question isn't, "Why do they support an intervention in their territory?"

The question I ask you to ask yourself is, "What kind of suffering leads a people to accept the risk of another nation intervening in their territory?"

‍Scrutiny and Discernment are Signs of Responsibility
Finally, I understand those who question President Trump's motives or doubt the legality of the operation that took place in the Venezuelan capital in the early hours of last Saturday, and those are valid questions. In times like these, scrutiny and discernment are signs of responsibility. I'm not asking you not to ask these questions; what I do ask from the bottom of my heart is that you please stand in solidarity with the millions of Venezuelans who have just glimpsed a ray of light after decades of darkness.

Because, as I've explained throughout this lengthy account, this profound joy of the Venezuelan people, didn't stem from ideology or patriotism.

It truly arose from exhaustion and the hope of finally seeing a door begin to open, a door that will allow us to move toward: "A FREE VENEZUELA."

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*A Local Venezuelan reached out to us with this letter. He does humanitarian work in his home country and didn’t want his name published for fear of putting his own family in danger. We respect his privacy and are grateful to him for speaking truth.‍

Photo credit: Sebastián Vivallo Oñate/Agencia Makro/Getty Images.