Tue, Jan 06, 2026 page3

• A Taiwanese in Venezuela shares perspective on Maduro arrest

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  While some Venezuelans celebrated the arrest of their president in a US raid over the weekend, others were conflicted about the violation of the nation’s sovereignty and the future of their country, a Taiwanese resident of the South American nation said on Sunday.

  The man, surnamed You (游), declined to give his full name or exact location for safety concerns, but said he has lived in Venezuela for more than 25 years.

  From a town about a five-hour drive from the capital, Caracas, You spoke about his experiences in the country a day after the US launched airstrikes before seizing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife to face drug trafficking charges in New York.

  

  A government supporter holds an action figure of Super Bigote, based on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, during a protest demanding his release from US custody, in Caracas on Sunday.

  Photo: AP

  You, 39, said he learned about the US strikes and seizure of Maduro after dawn on Saturday, when he woke up to people celebrating in the street.

  People fell into three broad categories on the incident, with the main two being those who support the government, often because they work for or otherwise benefit from it, and the opposition, which welcomed the intervention, he said.

  In the middle are many people who feel conflicted by the events, who hope for a change of government, but also view the seizure of the head of state as a violation of sovereignty or an invasion, he said.

  While on a drive on Sunday, You said he was briefly stopped at a checkpoint by police looking for suspicious individuals, before being quickly released.

  You, 39, came to Venezuela in 1998, when his father was sent by a Taiwan-based company to work in the South American nation.

  At the time, the country had a prosperous economy, with a metro system in the capital more advanced than the one in Taipei, he said.

  As a university student during the administration of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez — who used booming profits from the country’s oil sector to fund a range of social and welfare programs — You received government stipends to study pharmacology and later attend graduate school, he said.

  You was working for a foreign company in 2016, when collapsing oil prices, combined with economic mismanagement under Maduro, who took office after Chavez’ death in 2013, gave rise to hyperinflation, shortages and widespread protests.

  US sanctions further squeezed the economy as they were introduced over the next two years, he said.

  Amid the turmoil, many Taiwanese businesspeople who did not have well-established businesses or family reasons to stay left the country in 2017 and 2018, You said.

  Although his father had passed away, You said he had put down roots in Venezuela, with a family and a business exporting industrial bearings, and that leaving the country was “not an option.”

  To illustrate the situation many Venezuelans find themselves in, You gave the example of a friend, a career soldier, who, even if he did oppose the government, could not express it without facing immediate and severe consequences.

  Among poorer Venezuelans, many fear having their benefits cut if they speak out against the government, he said.

  He expressed hope that the country could someday return to the “golden era” he found when he arrived in the late 1990s.
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