DORAL, Fla. – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó said he will continue to give a voice to those in need despite the anguish of having to leave his family back in Caracas.
Guaidó was in Miami-Dade County’s city of Doral to talk about the need for unity at the EVTV studio, a Spanish-language television station that is popular among the diaspora.
As he stood near a painting of the Venezuelan flag, a woman who embraced her gray hair approached him. She handed him a gift wrapped in a plastic bag, and said in Spanish, “May God bless you.”
Guaidó hugged her. She was nearly in tears.
“I feel safe,” Guaidó said in English on Friday during an interview with Local 10 News.
His arrival to the United States, he said was in search of protection not just for himself, but also for those who continue to oppose Nicolás Maduro and his violent and corrupt regime.
The 39-year-old father said his wife, Fabiana Rosales, 30, their two daughters, Miranda and Mérida, ages 1 and 5, and other members of his family, staff, and political supporters remain vulnerable.
“My main duty is to protect them,” Guaidó said in Spanish adding that he is still exploring options to keep them safe.
Most of the exiles have welcomed him with open arms, but there are some who had put their hope in him some years ago, who have said they felt disappointed.
“When a task remains pending or you did not achieve it in time, which in the case of Venezuela it is not a short time, it is normal to feel frustrated,” Guaidó said in Spanish.
Supporters have been approaching him regularly since his arrival on Tuesday at Miami International Airport on a commercial flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia.
Some rush him with their mobile phones to request a selfie and he always complies. On Wednesday, he was able to hug his mother, Norka Márquez, who lives in exile, for the first time in three years.
On Thursday, in Coral Gables, Guaidó told reporters about the case of Edmundo “Pipo” Rada, a politician with the opposition, who vanished for a day in 2019. His burned body turned up on the side of a road.
“They placed a wet towel on his face,” Guaidó said in Spanish, adding that the killers did so because they wanted him to be identified to send the opposition a message.
As the former president of Venezuela’s National Assembly from 2019 to 2021, he suffered more than four years of Maduro’s persecution, including a refusal to renew his passport amid a travel ban.
“They tried to kidnap me ... and they had plans, and we found out about them ... That’s why we avoided handing over a hostage to the dictatorship,” Guaidó said to explain his decision to cross the border with Colombia, where he said he was threatened with deportation.
While on friendly terms with Maduro, left-wing Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s administration didn’t welcome Guaidó, who some world leaders — including Petro’s right-wing predecessor, Ivan Duque — had once considered to be Venezuela’s de facto leader.
“I was persecuted in two countries,” Guaidó said about Venezuela and Colombia, while also accusing Colombia’s Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva of lying about his case.
On Friday, Guaidó said he was grateful that U.S. diplomats didn’t feel the same way about his expired passport and helped him to get to the U.S. He said next week he will have meetings in Washington, D.C.
“Let’s not allow Russia to continue to destabilize the American continent,” Guaidó said Thursday, also later adding that the human rights violations in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are “backed by Moscow.” Maduro also has the support of China.
Guaidó had already defied them in 2020 when he met with former President Donald Trump in the White House, and also met with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Guaidó had already survived a brief kidnapping, a raid at his home, and several assaults. His uncle Juan Jose Marquez survived an arbitrary arrest. Maduro’s forces arrested Roberto Marrero and Sergio Vergara, his closest advisors, and many of his supporters were tortured and exiled.
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