Miguel Tamburini got a call from his mother last night, after bombs began hitting Venezuela just blocks away from her home.
Tamburini, owner of Jumping Jackalope Axe Throwing, said he stayed up on the phone with his mother, hearing in real time everything that was happening in his home country.
“This should have happened years ago, but not in this way,” Tamburini said.
Tamburini and other Venezuelans reached Saturday in Spokane say they are happy President Nicolás Maduro has been removed from office.
Tamburini said he’s glad to see a change in power, but saddened that it took intervention from another country to make it happen. He added that this is the result of appointing Supreme Court justices based on loyalty rather than merit.
“In Venezuela, the justices are all aligned with the government, which allowed it to take control of the National Electoral Council,” Tamburini said. “These are positions that need to have strict terms and remain nonpartisan, otherwise it is basically asking for someone, anyone with power to gain absolute corrupted power.”
Wilfredo Valero and Mariana Pirela, owners of Wana Wilo, a small Venezuelan food business, said they are in shock.
“It’s something we’ve wanted to happen for such a long time, but because of the disappointments we’ve already been experiencing with everything that has happened over time, we simply can’t believe it,” Valero said in Spanish.
But they aren’t celebrating just yet. Valero said there’s still a long road ahead.
“We want each and every member who supports the regime to be captured, just as Maduro was today, because the problem doesn’t go away with Maduro,” Valero said.
“It’s only a matter of time. If we’ve already waited all these years, a little longer won’t hurt us,” he continued.
Morella Perez Suels, founder of VenSpokane, said as a Venezuelan citizen living in forced exile for more than 9 years, there is nothing that makes her happier than seeing the capture of Maduro.
VenSpokane is a community group for Venezuelans in Spokane.
“Twenty-six years of dictatorship, murders, torture, crimes against humanity, forced disappearances, famine, violence, 9 million emigrants watered around the world, families disminted. Only Venezuelans have suffered that and we understand that it is difficult to digest it,” Perez Suels said.
She said the issue extends beyond Venezuela, arguing that the country’s government has allowed military bases in their territory with the support of Russia, China, Cuba and Iran. She claims their plan was to create a coalition to attack the U.S. and impose communism throughout America and then multiply it to other continents.
“Today there was not a single casualty on the part of the United States, and if there was any casualty of Venezuelans, then it will be the cost of freedom,” Perez Suels said. “But it was clear that it was no longer negotiable to live under the yoke of this criminal group.”
She said she will be celebrating today all the good Venezuelans, in memory of those who have died fighting for freedom.
Tamburini said he hopes this year marks a new era for Venezuela’s government, one centered on unity and cooperation, where people work together rather than against one another.
“We all want our country to go back to what it was and get out of the economic disaster we are in and actually enjoy a stable coin and stable prices,” he said.
