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For years, many of Venezuela’s exiles in Spain — leading opposition figures and citizens — have hoped for a day when ousted president Nicolás Maduro would no longer be in power.
It’s been an enduring hope for Xiomara Sierra since Venezuela’s July 2024 elections, when she became a target of threats while co-ordinating an opposing political party’s campaign. Sierra says she was accused of terrorism on national television by the country’s justice minister.
“He banged his fists on a table and he threatened me with Operación Tun Tun,” she said, referencing mass arrests of protesters and opponents by Venezuelan security forces. “I didn’t say goodbye to my family. Nobody knew I was leaving.”
Sierra, now a spokesperson in Spain for opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner María Corina Machado, says she worries about Venezuela’s vice-president, who has been sworn in as interim leader. “Delcy Rodríguez is the instrument of repression for the Venezuelan state,” Sierra said. “We cannot trust her.”
Faced with the Maduro regime’s brutal repression, Venezuelans have sought refuge in Spain in recent years. Speaking the same language, sharing cultural similarities and benefiting from open migration policies, about 400,000 Venezuelans reside in Spain, according to the country’s statistics office.
“It’s a mixed feeling. This is not what we were expecting,” said Sarahy Chirinos, who runs a Venezuelan bakery at Madrid’s Maravillas market. “Venezuelans were expecting that Maduro would be taken out of office and that a democratic transition would start with María Corina Machado. Now we have to wait and continue to pray to God.”
Sierra is one of the few opposition members exiled in Spain speaking publicly since the American operation that captured Maduro and his wife on Jan. 3. Many prefer to stay out of the spotlight as they figure out whether they will be able to return to public life in Venezuela.
Human rights groups say Venezuela holds 800 to 900 political prisoners, most of them swept up under Maduro’s leadership. Many of them are believed to be held in El Helicoide, a detention centre in Caracas documented for years as a site of abuse and torture against prisoners.
On Friday, Venezuela announced the release of some political prisoners. U.S. President Donald Trump responded with a social media post saying he had called off a second wave of military strikes in the country.
But Sierra said the release doesn’t go far enough. “For a real change, all political prisoners must be released, and all the torture centres should be closed. Then the popular vote of the Venezuelan population in 2024 should be respected.”
The U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro unlocked new hope for the hundreds of political dissidents lost in Venezuela’s notorious prisons. For The National, CBC’s Evan Dyer speaks to Venezuelans now living in Canada who say they want to see the Trump administration do more to free their family and friends.
Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the 76-year-old former diplomat who was the opposition candidate in the presidential election in 2024 and was granted political asylum in Spain, called on Friday for the “explicit” recognition of his election victory.
“Democratic reconstruction in Venezuela depends on the explicit recognition of the results of the elections of July 28, 2024,” he told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
The former mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, exiled in Madrid, called for “strategic patience” moving forward. Leopoldo López, another opposition figure exiled in Madrid after being sentenced in 2015 to 14 years in prison for calling for post-election protests in 2014, has not reacted publicly.
An uncertain future
Fears are palpable among Venezuelan asylum seekers who are waiting for their applications to be processed in Spain. One 37-year-old applicant in the Spanish city of León asked not to be named to avoid jeopardizing her claim. “I’m very scared, we don’t know what’s going to happen for our case here,” she said.
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in 2024, several European countries suspended asylum applications for Syrians. “If tomorrow Europe or Spain decides that Venezuela is safe and rejects our applications and tells us to go back, what will we do? There’s no hope left in my country.”
For now, the Spanish prime minister has pledged that Spain will help Venezuelans decide their future, while repeatedly condemning the U.S. operation.
Since Trump’s return to power and his tightening of migration policies, Spain has recorded an increase in arrivals of Latin Americans, particularly from Venezuela. The absence of a tourist visa makes entry into Spain easier, but that doesn’t mean everything is simple.
“Like many Venezuelans, I had nothing when I arrived here in Spain, not even papers,” said Chirinos, who now has her own business. The journey has been long and difficult, so she remains undecided about whether she will ever return one day to her country.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been away from my country. I have two sons, and my youngest, who is eight, was born when we left Venezuela. He’s never been able to see his country,” said Chirinos.
‘We hope to return for the reconstruction’
Venezuelans in Spain are asking themselves whether the situation has improved enough to return home. Some say they haven’t seen their relatives or their country for years.
“Venezuela is still not a free country, but it is entering a democratic transition process that we hope will be effective,” said Eriana Zuleta, a 28-year-old Venezuelan woman exiled in Madrid who has only known Chávez and Maduro as leaders of her country. “It’s true that we still haven’t packed our bags; we can’t just leave overnight yet.”
Her father, Erick Zuleta, president of the national union of transport workers of Venezuela and former opposition deputy, arrived almost 10 years ago in Spain. “On July 26, 2017, when we voted for the transportation strike to protest the shortages, I was warned that the political police were coming to arrest me,” said Erick, who was once a neighbour to Delcy Rodríguez.
What followed was a three-day escape that ended on the Simón Bolívar Bridge, which separates Colombia from Venezuela. “I crossed nine states of Venezuela, changing cars several times. I was scared; it was like a science fiction movie.”
Erick’s daughter followed him shortly afterwards to Spain as a result of pressure. Eriana said her family was under constant surveillance.
Erick already wants to think about the future of his country. “I already have a plan for the recovery of the transportation system in Venezuela,” said the union representative, specifying that María Corina Machado would first have to come to power in the country.
“We hope to return for the reconstruction, but everything will depend on how events unfold,” he said.
Sierra also hopes to one day be able to reunite with her loved ones. “What happened on Jan. 3 gives me hope that one day I will be able to return home, even though the conditions are not yet in place.”