[lukan]

"I am saying that a wide majority of Venezolans are totally happy about this"

How do you know that?

What I know anecdotically from other persons from latin america is, they are happy for Maduro to be gone, but fear of venezuela becoming a US colony.

[aglavine]

Maduro lost elections. 8 millions of exilees can't love him. And I interact daily with exilees. You can disagree. It is hard to believe narco dictators have too much love from people anyway.

[xg15]

This is a bit like saying "everyone hates the regime in Cuba. I've talked with lots of Cubans in Miami and they all say that".

[aglavine]

We are talking about 20% of the population here. A massive wave. They would be impoverished, imprisoned or dead have they not fled. Hard to believe people who stayed are happy about this.

But check the news, the web, talk to people objectively.I can be wrong, but I think the evidence is overwhelming, statistically speaking.Check for yourself.

[armenarmen]

My Venezuelan friends in the US are for the most part very happy about it. And this is not a gotcha at all, but I haven’t seen much about Venezuela in exporting fent to the US coming from anyone outside the Trump camp

[lukan]

No doubt that exilees do not love him. But it was about a "wide majority" who hold that opinion. There are lots of russian refugees for example as well and they are not a fan of Putin. But back at home he still seems to enjoy majority support in a broad sense at least and I have no inside knowledge into Venezuela at all.

[aglavine]

I don't know about Russia, maybe their economy didn't collapse as Venezuela's did. But I really don't know.

[arunabha]

I see you keep repeating this exact statement every time you are challenged and asked for actual sources. Others have pointed out that when you do provide some sources, they end up contradicting your position. If all you have is videos of people celebrating, then you can find plenty of those from Jan 6th. Does that mean that Biden lost the elections and the people of the United States approved of the attempted coup?

At this point, it's hard to imagine that you are actually arguing in good faith.

[solenoid0937]

Any argument along the lines of "Venezuelans aren't happy with this" out of touch with Venezuelan culture. They do not have to die by the millions to oust a dictator that killed thousands and caused 20% to emigrate. They are happy with this.

That is what OP is saying: HN users, in order to promote their personal politics, are being concerned for a people that don't want and actively reject your concern because they are happy with the outcome.

HN is doing the equivalent of (a) denying Venezuelans appreciate this, and when that fails (b) claiming they know better than Venezuelans wrt whether this is good or bad for them.

[Izkata]

> That is what OP is saying: HN users, in order to promote their personal politics, are being concerned for a people that don't want and actively reject your concern because they are happy with the outcome.

> (b) claiming they know better than Venezuelans wrt whether this is good or bad for them.

Well, this isn't surprising at all. At least these two points also apply to the right within the US, the HN bubble doesn't even try to understand their actual views either.

[anon7725]

> HN is doing the equivalent of (a) denying Venezuelans appreciate this, and when that fails (b) claiming they know better than Venezuelans wrt whether this is good or bad for them.

It’s very dangerous to do the “right thing” for the wrong reasons in a complex situation. This is step 1. Does anyone have faith that the Trump admin will properly execute steps 2..N?

I would have some respect if the administration announced that it would support a provisional government led by the apparent winner of the last election in Venezuela. As such it seems to be that the administration has left the existing power structure in place and established a client/patron relationship with the leadership. This is revolting.

[solenoid0937]

> It’s very dangerous to do the “right thing” for the wrong reasons in a complex situation.

Venezuelans do not care for this train of thought. No one else was going to do it, and their equivalent of Hitler has just been ousted.

Far better, from their perspective, to have the evil guy removed than endless do-nothing hand-wringing from the international community that shares your train of thought.

Democratically held elections will be run again in the country.

The "wrong reasons" can still be mutually beneficial. The US gets its oil and Venezuela gets its dictator disappeared.