Venezuelans in Ireland welcome Maduro’s removal but question U.S. role and path ahead as Dublin protest targets raid
DUBLIN — Venezuelans living in Ireland have greeted the removal of Nicolas Maduro with relief and unease, celebrating the end of a regime they say crushed civic life while warning that a U.S.-led transition risks paternalism and confusion.
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Maduro, described by U.S. officials as Venezuela’s toppled leader, is in a New York detention center awaiting drug charges after President Donald Trump ordered an audacious raid to capture him and said the United States would “run” the oil-producing nation until a “safe, proper and judicious transition.” Smoke was seen rising from the Port of La Guaira after the attack.
Liliana Fernandez, a Venezuelan who has lived in Ireland since 2013, said the diaspora’s joy is tempered by fear of what comes next.
“We are eight million abroad for a reason,” Fernandez told RTÉ’s This Week. “The only reason our families [in Venezuela] are surviving is because we send remittances.”
She said years of daily human rights violations were too often ignored internationally in favor of arguments over oil and geopolitics. “It seems that politicians are concerned about the oil extraction, but no one is talking about the needs and what the local people think,” she said. “I also feel that they are underestimating, in a way, our own capacity to deal with this situation. It’s like very paternalistic.”
Fernandez cautioned that Venezuela’s crisis isn’t just a standoff between Maduro and Washington. “People forget that there is an opposition in Venezuela — it allowed this to happen,” she said. She also raised alarm over Trump’s vow to “run” the country during a transition. “We basically were so desperate for a change. We question the process, but at the same time, we know that something had to happen. Now, the question is, what’s actually going to happen?”
Her primary concern is for people still inside Venezuela. “It cannot get worse for them. Basically, they’ve been in misery,” she said, citing long-running shortages. “They’ve been lacking access to services for so many years, not being able to buy food for years.”
Another Venezuelan in Ireland, Betzy Nina, who moved in 2010, said her reaction to Maduro’s downfall is “confusing.”
“Every Venezuelan person that I talk to is happy. We want him out. We tried; our own people tried to do it so many times. So many people died,” she said. “It was rock bottom already,” adding that a month’s minimum wage is not enough to buy food. “When I was living there as an adult, I went protesting, I saw people being killed. I saw people looking for food in the bins, well-dressed, like middle class.”
Nina said she hopes her family will soon have clarity on the transition — and that Irish audiences will listen to Venezuelans’ lived experience. “You don’t really know if you haven’t lived it,” she said. “It’s been too long, too complicated to just say, ‘they just want your oil.’”
In Dublin, more than 60 people gathered outside the U.S. Embassy to protest the raid and Washington’s stated plans to oversee Venezuela’s transition. The demonstration was organized by Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland, the Irish Anti-War Movement and several student groups.
A passing Venezuelan couple said the protest did not reflect their views and that they hoped Maduro’s removal would allow them to return home to visit family, but they declined to speak to media.
“Sovereignty is a fundamental principle of international relations,” said Dr. Clare O’Grady Walshe, who attended the protest. “I’m no lover of Maduro… But to go into a country and actually take him out and do so in this manner, completely in breach of international law, it actually threatens all of us.”
Former Trinity College Dublin students’ union president and activist Jenny Maguire said Venezuelans “deserve self-determination.” She argued the raid should “send red flags up for everyone across the world,” adding, “I think the U.S. is only looking after its own interest and the interests of tech billionaires and oil companies.”
Shiraz Nazar, a student from Pakistan, said he opposed U.S. intervention. “The U.S. has already invaded and intervened in so many other countries and has messed up and screwed up a lot of countries already,” he said. “I hate Nicolas Maduro as much as the next guy but I don’t support the U.S. intervening and overthrowing him because it doesn’t guarantee that there will be a new leader who will be for the Venezuelan people.”
For Venezuelans in Ireland like Fernandez and Nina, the immediate task is the same: safeguard those at home and push for a credible, transparent transition. The relief is real, they say — but so is the uncertainty.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
