Greetings friend, I am Venezuelan. I emigrated from my country at the age of 12 along with my family from Venezuela because of hunger and misery, and to look for a better future because education in Venezuela was not viable. There are many qualified teachers who resigned from their jobs because the salary was miserable. I came back because I missed my country, my parents and siblings who, for economic reasons, could not leave the country. We always want to return to our homeland because Venezuela is beautiful. After 7 years I returned. I had many dreams of staying to study at university and working. It wasn't possible. The only profitable job was being a security guard, and the only possible course of study was becoming a police officer or soldier because that's the career the government needs to repress the people. I returned to Colombia again, leaving my parents and siblings behind once more in December 2025. Despite not being my native country, Colombia has embraced me and I have the opportunity to pursue a university degree. It's not easy to leave Venezuela because of a dictatorship; it's not easy to leave such a beautiful country when forced to because criminals want to decide what you eat, your salary, your studies.
We didn't leave the country because we wanted to, but because we were forced to. A dictatorship that chooses your life is unacceptable.

That's why the vast majority of Venezuelans want to return, because we were forced to leave the land that is supposed to be our home.

I'm a 19-year-old guy telling you all this. But my story is nothing compared to the thousands of Venezuelans who couldn't leave the country and who are imprisoned or killed by this government.

Thank God I'm alive; many young people didn't live to tell the tale.

I speak to you sincerely from the anger and pain of someone who is happy not because Trump is the one who managed to end the tyranny. I'm happy that my country is free again. Perhaps it's interference, perhaps he wants our resources, but a part of me is grateful to Trump for giving us a little peace.