Congratulations Venezuelans!
By: Obie Usategui
1/3/2025

I take this moment to congratulate, to commend, to praise, to toast Venezuelans’ triumph today. Ironically, I was in one of my many sleepless nights, and, by pure coincidence, as I was changing channels on my T.V., looking for anything that would catch my interest, I inadvertently landed in one of the local Spanish channels and noticed that they were reporting an airstrike on different locations inside Caracas, the Venezuelan capital and other strategic locations. If my memory serves me right, these locations included, La Guaira, Isla Margarita and La Carlota – the airbase in Caracas.

The time, was about 1:05 am on Saturday. At first, all I saw were your typical radiant red-orange explosions such as those seen in the aftermath of a bomb crashing into a target. I could see various locations where targets were being blown away with these detonations. At that time, the narrator of the report did nor disclose who conducted the air strike. All the reporter referred to at the time was that small planes were responsible for delivering the air strikes with no mention of any American involvement.

I could not hold myself and waked up my wife who was already sound sleep and I remember saying to her, “honey, I think that Venezuela is being bombarded”, no sooner I had told her, no sooner that I heard the news that it was the U.S., “the Americans” that were bombing the city, and that they had captured Maduro and his wife. Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear the long-awaited new, as, for months now, based on all that transpired, we all kind of knew it was not a matter of “if,” but just “when.” Maduro’s days, we all knew were, as they say, “counted,” meaning he was doomed as Trump had been long setting the stage for today’s happy ending!

Must say though, while I am indescribably happy for Venezuela and, for that matter, for all Latin America, I became emotional as I saw crowds of Venezuelans taking to the streets both in Caracas as well as here in the Doral area. Doral, we all know, is to Venezuelans in Miami, same a “Little Havana” is to Cuban Americans. I saw the masses waiving their Venezuelan flags, and, must say, it was somewhat of a bittersweet moment for me. Tears came down my eyes, as I asked myself why we, Cuban Americans could not be as lucky as Venezuelans.

I thought to myself, respectfully, unlike Fidel Castro and his Cuban Revolution, Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s mentor, first came to power in December 1998, however, unlike Cuba, Venezuelans elected Chávez via democratically sanctioned elections. In other words, Venezuelans did, in fact, elect a communist president. Vis-à-vis, our Fidel Castro, instead, was an imposed coup d’é·tat on December, 1959.

As a matter of record, back in the day, I owned a plastics manufacturing company, and my partner was a Venezuelan who acclaimed Chávez and repeatedly told me how Chávez was not a communist and how he [Chávez] could never be another Castro. Our partnership did not end in happy terms – a story for another day.

So yes, besides the obvious joy that comes with Maduro’s downfall today, the joy is not without some bittersweet memories, a tad of jealousy maybe as I wondered why is it that after 67 years Cuban Americans have not been able to waive our flags celebrating the freedoms that will now be enjoyed by Venezuelans, even by some who helped elect the Maduro regime to begin with.

The simple and plain answer to my question, is, the difference between them [Venezuelans] and us [Cuban Americans] is one simple one – Donald J. Trump. The difference, again, today’s Venezuelans were fortunate to have a Donald Trump as president and a Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Trump with sufficient “balls” to do what he did. And we, Cuban Americans with a goddammed wimp named John F. Kennedy who, on April 17,1961, unlike Trump, was willing to betray a valiant group of warriors known as the “2506 Brigade” as Kennedy let the invaders die in the Bay of Pigs invasion one in which Kennedy had pledged to give air support that never happened.

Yes, my dear friends, as a defender of democracy, I join with my Venezuelan friends, in today’s triumph which is one that all democracies should hail. I think that Maduro’s downfall may have huge geopolitical repercussions, not only in all Latin America, but throughout the world. The world knows, at least for the next three years, that Donald J. Trump means business and that democracy is coming back after communism has been nothing but a failed experiment in all places of the world.

I must also remind Venezuelans that it was someone of Cuban American descent, our own Marco Rubio who was one of the principal architects in Maduro’s demise. I am only saying that as there have been some cultural tugs of war between Venezuelans and Cubans throughout the years.

To all Venezuelans, my ex-partner included, I say, hey, be thankful, kiss your stars, praise your blessings, and remember you carried the cross of communism for 28 years and you can now call it over. We [Cubans] are still carrying the same cross and after 67 years and we are still counting. It is your turn now to support us in gaining our well-deserved freedom as well. We are counting on you as you counted us. Long live democracy!