NPR reporter stunned by Venezuela visit, locals say 'a weight has been lifted' after Maduro's removal
NPR correspondent Eyder Peralta was amazed during a segment Friday by his recent trip to Venezuela following President Donald Trump's arrest of the country's president Nicolás Maduro.
"It is absolutely surreal because you land at the airport and the signs are in Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese, which tells you just where this country was facing a few months ago," Peralta told host Steve Inskeep. "And then you go out on the streets and people here tell you that they feel like a weight has been lifted."
He continued, "For the first time in a long time, there are street protests. Opposition groups are holding public meetings. I was at the justice department building yesterday, and there was a group of protesters calling for all political prisoners to be released."
US RESTORES DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH VENEZUELA AMID PUSH FOR DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION
Peralta recalled his encounter with Edward Ocariz, a former political prisoner who Peralta said had "faced the wrath of this government."
"But then, right there in public, he taunted the government. They call us traitors, he said, but look at them now," Peralta said. "'Now it's them who are not only kneeling,' he's saying, 'but sleeping with the United States.' And to be clear, he thinks the U.S. intervention was regrettable, but he also thinks that something good came out of it, and that allows him to say this in public without being thrown back in prison."
The NPR reporter went on to say he observed "lots of smiles" during Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's visit, who was brokering a deal with the interim Venzuelan government, eyeing minerals that the U.S. once depended on China for.
"And those are the minerals in your laptop, for example, and he says Venezuela likely has those minerals," Peralta said. "American companies would like to extract them, and Venezuela could suddenly become key in helping the U.S. break reliance on China — a win-win, he called it. And yesterday, Trump said, quote, 'Venezuela is working.' Once again, he was framing it as the model for regime change."
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The Trump administration shocked the world in January when it extracted Maduro and his wife in an overnight operation in order to bring them to justice in the U.S. for criminal charges filed against them in 2020.
The State Department announced Thursday the U.S. is reestablishing "diplomatic and consular relations" with the interim Venezuelan government.