“A Ghost in the Diaspora” is a space where we discuss what it means to leave the place where you are from, arrive wherever it is you are living now, and reckon with that dislocation. I approach these subjects from my own experience as a member of Venezuelan-American diaspora. I publish about a piece a month.
Notes on this text:
I wrote this piece about a month ago. I had reached a point where I was done with the phrase “they got what they voted for.” But I couldn’t articulate why, so I sat down and tried to sketch out my argument.
If I wrote this a month ago, why are you reading it now? Well, I tried to pitch this piece to a couple of mainstream publications because I thought it was worth sharing. I emailed folks and was like “Hi! I am a ghost writing about why I am done with the phrase they got what they voted for as it is applied to Venezuelan-Americans.” While there were some nibbles, ultimately there were no bites. So I let this piece lie in a purgatory of sorts.
Some pieces need to be in purgatory for a while, so I can return to them later when my writing has evolved or the world has changed. Some, like this piece, aren’t as well served by stagnation; they need to go out hot. And so, I’ve cleaned it up and am serving you my words while they’re still warm1.
I first saw the pictures of the Venezuelans, supposed members of El Tren de Aragua gang, deported to the maximum security prison in El Salvador, CECOT, on Instagram. Much can be said about those images and what they mean, but that is not the focus of this piece.
As the days passed, I saw stories that humanized these men: talking about what they left in Venezuela and in the States, the confusion and grief of their loved ones, the tragedy and cruelty of it all.
I also came across other types of stories.
I saw a video of Ana Navarro, the nicaragüense host of The View, talking about the El Salvador incident. She starts by saying that only a minuscule number of Venezuelans in the States are actually associated with El Tren de Aragua. That most Venezuelans are good, hardworking people. But then she pivots and starts down a familiar path. She highlights the “irony” that Venezuelans—including the MAGAzuelans of Doralzuela, a place where 30-40% of the population report Venezuelan ancestry— ”hugely” supported Trump. She concludes by directing herself to Venezuelans, saying, “You know what, you voted for that.” The video abruptly ends.
I roll my eyes. This “they got what they voted for” phrasing is something I’ve heard repeatedly. I’ve used it myself. But it’s been bothering me recently. I think it’s because it’s started to feel like a cop-out, like a shorthand for something that needs more explaining.
I can understand that many are dumbfounded by the support Trump and the Republicans received from Venezuelans. But those of us paying attention saw this coming. On the campaign trail, Trump told Venezuelans what they wanted to hear. He continuously called Maduro a dictator. He promised a “hard hand” approach to the Venezuelan regime. He elevated Marco Rubio, a Venezuelan favorite because of his vocal anti-Chavez and Maduro stance. On the other hand, Democrats have historically equivocated in their condemnation of the Venezuelan regime, so many of my compatriots already distrusted them. It didn’t help when Democrats were too quiet about last summer's ongoing Venezuelan presidential crisis. When Biden extended the Temporary Protection Status program for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Democrats had already lost the election.
Of course, Trump quickly reversed course after taking office. He sent his deputy to Caracas to shake hands with Maduro. Fairweather friend Marco Rubio supports the end of the TPS program, even after he advocated for Biden to extend these protections in 2022.
The Trump administration’s broad anti-Venezuelan sentiment triggered numerous pieces profiling Venezuelans who once supported Trump seemingly against their own best interests. Organizations like the Washington Post and CNN published schadenfreude-inducing articles, titled with a version of “These Venezuelans supported Trump, now they fear deportation.” For me, this was when the plot was lost and the eyerolling began. Many of these pieces felt like finger-pointing and mocking. Like, take a look at these idiots, too dumb to know what’s good for them. Users from across the internet, Venezuelan or not, said that quiet part out loud in the comments section.
Like all one-liners, “they got what they voted for” fails to tell a full story.
Of course, some Venezuelans embrace problematic rhetoric. We are a people plagued by classism and racism, and we brought those isms to these shores. Many educated, upper-class Venezuelans do not see themselves in the plight of those sent to El Salvador. Some, publicly and privately, see all those being deported as the “bad ones.” There are Venezuelans working with Bukele in El Salvador. Online citizens leave comments on social media, upset that these “illegals and criminals” have “ruined our reputation.”
Our compatriots committed the harm that Venezuelans and other migrants are escaping from. Venezuelans were the first victims of El Tren de Aragua. The gang fights in Latin America have created an immeasurable number of innocent victims. It is under these circumstances that leaders like Bukele have gained popularity, promising to bring down the deaths through a “tough” approach by exchanging one violence for another (remind you of someone else?). This is a winning political strategy: a Salvadoran poll late last year found that 9 out of 10 salvadoreños approved of Bukele. Venezuelans of all political affiliations are the first to say that they don’t want violence following them across the border. Safety was probably what attracted “JABV”, one of the men in CECOT, to the States. He was abducted and beaten for working for the Venezuelan opposition party in the summer of 2024.
You can argue with me on the sentiments and rhetoric, but you can’t argue with me on numbers. Math supports my theory that we should think twice before using the “they voted for this” rhetoric as a statement directed to Venezuelans in the US.
The overwhelming majority of Venezuelans in the US can’t vote. Of the ~900,000 Venezuelans living in the US, ~760,000 cannot vote because they are here on some protected status and/or are not citizens2. And while Trump gained inroads with Hispanic men, now the GOP’s vote to lose3, all of those who voted couldn’t have voted for the man. That’s just statistically impossible.
And yes, there is some hint of “buyer’s remorse4.” But the uncomfortable truth is that many, Venezuelan-American or not, did vote for exactly this and are quite content with this immigration policy outcome. For them, “getting what they voted for” is not an insult, it’s a thrill.
I understand the thrill of watching people get their comeuppance. It’s delicious. Spite5 is a powerful motivator. We all know it feels good to say “I told you so.” But the real hurt being felt by many in my community should outweigh that thrill. The lack of acknowledgement of political disenfranchisement feels designed to make us look stupid and shifts accountability off those who could’ve done more to reach these communities. The most disenfranchised are the ones bearing the brunt of this, those still being illegally detained and disappeared and spelling out SOS as they await an uncertain fate. Those people didn’t vote for this. They didn’t vote at all.
🗞️ A brief summary of what’s been happening:
I’m making this a standard section for my main pieces, and I hope you find it useful. As a reminder, I’m not a trained journalist, just a ghost with a blog. Lots of stuff happening on both fronts this time…
The US:
The Supreme Court is set to rule on the legality of the Trump administration’s plan to end the TPS and humanitarian parole programs that grant legal residency to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and citizens of other countries like Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua:
The US also kept its recommendation for travel to Venezuela: Do not travel. It even says that Americans travelling there should “prepare a will and designate a power of attorney.” Yet their argument is that TPS for Venezuelans should end because the situation there has improved. Okay, sure.
Want to help those representing migrants in ongoing litigations? Here’s where you can donate!
Many federal judges (in Texas, New York, and Colorado) have ruled, one way or another, that you shouldn’t deport Venezuelans using the Alien Enemies Act (the mechanism the Trump administration used to send men to CECOT). But one federal judge in Pennsylvania said, “These folks should have a trial, but the Act can apply to this one guy.”
My reading on this is that the US government is trying to tie El Tren de Aragua directly with the Maduro government, arguing that if members of this gang are in the US, then it’s actually the Maduro government “invading” the US. My opinion is based on the fact that the head of the council, who concluded that it was “unlikely” that Maduro controlled El Tren de Aragua, got fired by Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence.
Venezuela:
Something incredible happened: Operación Guacamaya. Five individuals from Maria Corina Machado’s campaign, who were living under asylum in the former-Argentinian-now-Brazilian embassy in Caracas, escaped the country after being essentially held hostage there for more than a year. They have been confirmed to be on US soil.
This wasn’t some swanky stay. The Maduro government had more than one police force surrounding the area. The detainees described the situation as torture: they had irregular access to food, water, power, and medicine. The Red Cross provided medical assistance to the asylees in April.
Originally, there were six, but one of them, Fernando Martínez Mottola, gave himself to the authorities last December. He died this February under house arrest.
The retelling of the imprisonment and escape by Omar González Moreno, one of the five, is truly incredible. It is a must-read. This link is in Spanish, but if it gets translated, I will post it here (or maybe I’ll translate it myself? I don’t know the legalities of that)
How did this actually happen? How could people have escaped one of the most well-guarded residences in Caracas? Marco Rubio hints at US involvement. Machado has said this is a clear tell that the Maduro regime is more fractured than they let on. Maduro said some nonsense. But the retaliation was swift: they raided the homes of many relatives of the freed five.
The Maduro regime keeps kidnapping more individuals, and more individuals imprisoned by the government keep dying under their custody, including a 20-year-old woman who had been imprisoned since August of last year.
Maikelys Antonella Espinoza is a 2-year-old whose Venezuelan parents were removed from the US (one to CECOT, the other to Venezuela). She spent more than 300 days under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. She was returned to Venezuela on Wednesday, May 14th.
There’s a lot of online conversation on what should’ve happened to this girl. Many Venezuelans wished for her to remain in the US, thinking she would be happier growing up in a more stable country than Venezuela (whatever you believe, this is still true). Others think that her being separated from her family for that long constitutes a kind of crime. The only truth is that both the US and Venezuelan governments are using and abusing this situation of their own creation for their benefit. And that’s disgusting.
The image of Cilia Flores, Venezuela’s first lady, holding the child made the social media rounds. A real cynical move for a woman part of a regime that imprisons minors and has let public children’s hospitals disintegrate. This caricature, by Venezuelan artist Rayma, portrays my sentiments best.
I plan on writing a supplemental, process-focused post on how I’m thinking about my pitching/submitting/Substack strategy.
These numbers are hard to calculate, and I saw many coming from different sources, but they all coalesced around the same magnitude. The numbers here come from the following calculations, the main source being this article by the Washington Office on Latin America. If you are really curious, I have an Excel.
Written by Venezuelan author Alejandro Puyana.
Also written by Venezuelan author Alejandro Puyana, go support Venezuelan writers and read this work!
Or as my therapist would say, righteous indignation.
Another thing that bothers me about the whole “they got what they voted for” when it comes to Latinos: it furthers the idea that most Latino men voted for Trump (statistics vary about the men; Latinas went majority for Harris) and were therefore THE defining vote that cinched the election for Trump. Except if they had all voted for Harris, Trump still would have won because of his overwhelming support among white voters. Just another way to place the blame on anyone except them