Socialism cost me my country. Trump arresting Maduro might help us get it back
I never thought I’d see the man who destroyed my family’s life in handcuffs. But that’s exactly what happened when American forces recently captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife. "Trump is doing it!" my mother told me through tears over the phone. I never heard her happier. I was in shock. I stared at my phone, scrolling through videos and breaking news on X — my mother was right.
When I was growing up in Venezuela, I suffered alongside my parents who were forced to close our cosmetics business thanks to socialist government price controls. My parents made sacrifices, and didn’t eat so I could.
Those experiences inspired me to become a college campus activist in Venezuela against Maduro’s regime. I spoke out and promoted the truth about capitalism and liberty. I was soon expelled from school, labeled a terrorist and threatened with prison time.
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My cousin had already been jailed for his activism, and my family did not want the same for me. So we fled seeking political asylum in America.
It saved my life. America gave me a future of freedom and opportunity. And now, thanks to President Donald Trump, I have witnessed a measure of justice I never imagined possible.
My family and friends still in Venezuela are overjoyed. Perhaps there are no people more grateful for America’s president right now than Venezuelans.
Even though many of my friends and family in Venezuela are celebrating, they must do so quietly. Maduro has fallen, but his regime remains in power. Those who celebrate in the streets or post online still risk punishment and prison. This is not a happy ending for Venezuela, but a new beginning.
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What happens now is uncertain, and many wonder whether Venezuela will become another Iraq or Afghanistan.
But Venezuela is not a tribal country defined by sectarian violence. It is a Western nation with a long democratic tradition prior to Hugo Chávez, a shared language and a deeply Christian culture — more than 90 percent identify as such. This is not a country divided over whether tyranny is acceptable — it is a country that has been held hostage by force.
María Corina Machado — the Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the democratic opposition — has not yet assumed power. That’s because Machado has the support of the Venezuelan people, but not control of the military. Venezuela’s armed outfits are now, and have been for some time, a vast criminal enterprise loyal to cartels. That’s why President Trump, rather than pretending the regime collapsed overnight, is establishing a process — what Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as stabilization, recovery and transition.
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Do Venezuelans trust current leader Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president? No. She helped build the machinery of repression that terrorized the country. But she understands something Maduro did not: Trump is deadly serious.
Maduro challenged Trump. He is now sitting in a New York jailNew York jail cell. The regime has never been weaker.
If Rodríguez is cooperating — as the Trump administration suggests — it may already be creating fractures within the regime. Figures like Diosdado Cabello and Vladimir Padrino López built their power on violence, not compromise. That internal tension matters.
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This moment is fragile. Multiple outcomes are possible — internal splits, renewed repression, cooperation, or a negotiated transition. But one thing is undeniable: Venezuela — and the world — are better off with Nicolás Maduro behind bars.
Maduro was not a president — his elections were scams. He was a fugitive who was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2020 for narcoterrorism. Venezuela’s alliances with bad actors like China, Russia, Cuba and Iran continue to wreak havoc on America, and the world. But now, a major player is finally behind bars.
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Yet, too many in America are actually condemning the capture of a socialist dictator. Protesters outside the detention center demand Maduro’s release. They ironically praise his regime, apparently without realizing they would never be able to protest in Maduro’s Venezuela without being arrested.
Still others absurdly suggest Maduro is a conservative Christian leader.
The same Maduro used Venezuela’s so-called "Anti-Hate Speech Law" to persecute Catholics who dared criticize his regime. He publicly insulted clergy, calling priests "devils in cassocks," and even ordered investigations against them.
Venezuela’s Catholic shepherds remained undeterred and repeatedly condemned Maduro’s Marxist socialism. They have warned it "threatens freedom and the rights of persons and associations and has led to oppression and ruin in every country where it has been tried."
Freedom is an exception, not the norm. And America is unique in its commitment to liberty. Venezuela didn’t become a dictatorship overnight. It happened gradually with promises of fairness, more government control sold as compassion and the suppression of dissent. By the time people realized what they had lost, it was already too late.
I fled socialism to survive. And I urge Americans to avoid learning these lessons the hard way. Because I understand how easy it is to lose freedom — and how rare it is to get it back.