Some celebrate Nicolás Maduro’s removal. Luis Velásquez is not among them.
Original Air Date: January 7, 2026
Host: On the streets of Weston and Doral, the South Florida suburbs with the highest concentration of Venezuelan immigrants and exiles, many responded to the removal of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. armed forces with an outburst of joy and hope. Things have been quieter on this side of Florida. WSLR News talked to a Venezuelan exile in Bradenton who is much more skeptical.
Johannes Werner: In 2010, Luis Velásquez ran as an opposition candidate for the cabildo of the capital city of Caracas. He was elected by landslide, and by 2011, he chaired the council that runs the country’s biggest metropolitan area. The national government eventually removed Velásquez and his opposition peers from the cabildo. And in 2021, a Venezuelan court arraigned him over “treason of the fatherland.”…