Doral, one of the largest Venezuelan communities in the US, has long been a stronghold of Donald Trump. Since American special forces captured Nicolás Maduro, the US president’s popularity here has gone through the roof.
The mood in the city, nicknamed “Doralzuela”, was ecstatic this weekend as residents poured into the streets to celebrate the downfall of a dictator they blame for ruining their homeland and plunging millions into poverty.
At a patriotic street party on Sunday afternoon, locals draped in Venezuelan flags and stars and stripes held up signs saying “Thank You, President Trump!”
Alexander Guzmán, a 73-year-old retired salesman buying pan dulce at a downtown bakery, said the US military operation had confirmed what he always knew — that Trump was good for Venezuelans.
“I applaud him,” he said. “What he did is downright marvellous.”
In El Arepazo, a Doral restaurant that is a hub for the Venezuelan community, locals gathered to watch cable news reports of Maduro’s arrival in the US where he will face criminal charges related to alleged narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
“This is something we’ve been waiting for for 26 years,” said Liliana Ponce, a Venezuelan anthropologist who fled the regime of Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor, in 2006. “We’re getting our country back.”
Trump has long been a local hero in Doral, where he owns a golf resort and is also building a massive luxury condominium and mixed-used project. In the 2024 election he won around 60 per cent of the vote, a result that contributed to Miami-Dade county flipping Republican for the first time since 1998.
Pollsters say his frequent denunciations of socialism and promises to liberate Venezuela played a big role in his victory in the city where 40 per cent of the population is of Venezuelan origin.
“Most Venezuelans who voted for him did it because they knew he’s the one who can make things happen,” said Rafael Pineyro, a Doral councilman who was born in Caracas and moved to the US with his family when he was 15. “We expected him to be the one to put Maduro in jail.”
But behind the smiles there was also apprehension. Many gathered at El Arepazo were supporters of María Corina Machado, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate whom they see as a future leader of Venezuela.
Yet at Trump’s press conference on Saturday he appeared to play down her role, saying she “doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country”.
“There are some Venezuelans who fear that Trump is pushing her aside,” said Maria Fanti, a real estate agent who has lived in the US for 19 years. “Yet many of us feel she should be closely involved in the transition.”
She is also worried that Maduro’s allies — such as de facto leader Delcy Rodríguez, her brother Jorge Rodríguez, who is president of the National Assembly, and interior minister Diosdado Cabello — remain in power.
“Maduro was just a puppet of a very powerful mafia,” said a local café owner, who declined to give his name because he still has business interests in Caracas. “They stole everything.”
At the Sunday celebration, Francisco Perez said it was his dream to take his US-born daughter to visit her grandparents in Venezuela, whom she has never met.
Maduro’s capture brought that moment closer, but it was still a long way off. “They have to clean up the whole country first,” he said. “The bad people are all still there.”
Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, has appealed for patience. Speaking to CBS on Sunday he said he had “admiration” for Machado and Edmundo González, who is widely considered to have won the 2024 presidential election, but there had to be “a little realism” about Venezuela holding new elections and becoming a democracy.
“They’ve had the system of Chavismo in place for 15 or 16 years, and everyone’s asking why, 24 hours after Nicolás Maduro was arrested, there isn’t an election scheduled for tomorrow?” he said. “There’s a process.”
That message has resonated with many in the exile community. “We don’t have the power to confront all the criminals yet,” said María Teresa Morín, US director for Machado’s party Vente Venezuela.
She said she was also pinning her hopes on further US action to pressure Caracas’ remaining leaders. On Sunday, Trump warned of fresh military intervention, which could include dispatching US troops into Venezuela, if Delcy Rodríguez failed to accede to Washington’s demands.
While Venezuela’s future remains unclear, there is no doubt that Trump is now the darling of the expatriate community. Even those who soured on him in recent months over his administration’s draconian immigration policies are having a change of heart, community leaders said.
Many were outraged when the Trump administration cancelled Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan nationals in the US, leaving tens of thousands at risk of deportation. The humanitarian parole programme that had allowed Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans to enter and temporarily stay in the US was also ended.
Some immigrants felt they were being unfairly targeted. Pineyro said a few Venezuelans had come to the US “with bad intentions” and that authorities were right to “go after them”.
“But it’s wrong to tar everyone with the same brush,” he said.
Still, frustration with the administration might be easing. Fanti said she knew “a lot of people who were angry with Trump for getting rid of TPS”.
She added: “But they’re changing their mind about him now.”
Meanwhile, some are considering the once unthinkable — returning to Venezuela after years of self-imposed exile.
Aurelia Romero, who came to the US in 2014, thinks she could soon visit the homeland she never expected to see again. “I’d love to go back to my childhood home, to see my cousins,” she said. “All of that was stolen from me.”