‘Euphoria, complete exhilaration.’ That is how Miguel Portillo, 66, a Venezuelan migrant in Miami, described his feelings on the morning of 3 January as he watched news that Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s left-wing leader, and his wife had been seized in an American military operation in Caracas and taken to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges.
Portillo, a former lawyer from Maracaibo, Venezuela’s western oil port, said he jumped for joy: ‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.’ He rushed to join hundreds of other Venezuelans celebrating at El Arepazo, a restaurant in Miami’s El Doral district, where many exiles come to eat arepas, the maize dough patties that are a staple in Venezuela, and patacones, smashed fried plantains. El Doral is known as ‘Doralzuela’ for its large population of Venezuelan migrants.
