DORAL, Fla. — After the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro and he arrived in New York, there were Venezuelan migrants in Miami-Dade County who said they felt hopeful.

Some said they dreamed of family reunions. Valentina Prusza in Doral said she hasn’t been able to see her mother, who lives in Venezuela, for about 17 years.

“All of a sudden, we are here doing Uber, doing underground work. It’s been very hard. We lost family in Venezuela,” Prusza, 35, said.

During a news conference in Palm Beach, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would temporarily “run” Venezuela. Prusza hopes this means a better quality of life for Venezuelans.

“I had to study under a candle because we didn’t have electricity for 20 hours a day. We lived through it. I witnessed little kids at trash bins, begging for just pennies at red lights,” Prusza said.

The U.S. military also captured Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, and Trump said that Venezuela’s interim president had no choice.

On Sunday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement detailing the operation:

Silvana Moreno, whose parents are Venezuelan migrants in Miami-Dade, said she has been following every update closely.

“We’ve been awake for hours and hours, and we can’t believe it,” Moreno, 20, said.

Adriana Lugo said that she and her Venezuelan family in Miami-Dade were surprised by the overnight explosions in Caracas.

“It was so surreal, we couldn’t even believe it. We saw the pictures, we saw everything, and even then we couldn’t believe what was happening,” Lugo said.

Related coverage

• Who is Venezuela’s interim leader? Trump says ‘gracious’ Delcy Rodríguez doesn’t have a choice
• Here is a timeline of US escalating actions before Maduro’s capture in Venezuela

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