By Ryan Dubé
LIMA, Peru -- The millions of Venezuelans who have fled the rule of Nicolás Maduro stand largely in solidarity with compatriots who stayed behind -- except on the question of U.S. military intervention to change the regime.
Most of the eight million Venezuelans living in exile see American military action as the best shot to bring back democracy in a country they fear they may otherwise never see again, polls show.
And many say regime change would persuade them to return home after years in foreign countries, mostly in South America, where they have taken low-level jobs and increasingly face anger from local populations from Chile to Colombia. They have watched with anticipation as the U.S. moved military assets to the Caribbean, conducted deadly airstrikes on boats allegedly tied to the regime and blocked some oil exports.
"It's my greatest hope," said Yamileth Chávez, who in 2018 fled Venezuela's oil-rich state of Zulia, where she owned a pet store, to Peru's capital, Lima, where she drives an Uber. "The regime won't leave by playing nice."
President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio haven't said the military buildup's goal is to oust Maduro, and have all but ruled out an invasion to topple him. But senior administration officials like White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, in a candid interview with Vanity Fair, have said regime change is the desired outcome, and Trump has said Maduro's days are numbered.
About 64% of Venezuelans living abroad support a U.S. military intervention to depose Maduro, compared with 34% in the country, according to a recent AtlasIntel poll. Some 55% of Venezuelan migrants believe a U.S.-led military intervention is the most viable path to restoring democracy, compared with 25% for those in Venezuela, the poll showed.
"We've dreamed of this and needed this for so many years," said Orleans Tovar, who arrived in Peru nearly eight years ago with a dozen family members.
While people living in Venezuela also want Maduro gone, they are more focused on surviving rapidly increasing food prices than a Trump administration military buildup and threats of land strikes, heightened after Trump's recent disclosure of a U.S. strike on a dock in Venezuela.
Freddy Márquez, a lawyer in Caracas, said his family managed rising food prices over Christmas. But he worries the oil blockade will hammer what's left of Venezuela's economy and fears U.S. intervention.
"It would be catastrophic," he said. "Things are calm, but you can feel the tension."
Carlos Romero, a retired political-science professor and consultant in Caracas, said people inside Venezuela have had "a sort of delayed reaction to the situation and actions of the Trump government. People are focused on the day-to-day."
Venezuelans are fearful of speaking out in a country where the state tortures dissenters. They are also more apprehensive about the possible messy aftermath of U.S. military strikes, since they would deal with the consequences.
And they recall how previous attempts to oust Maduro failed, including Trump's so-called maximum-pressure campaign in 2019.
"The diaspora is more willing to roll the dice and hope for the best than those who live in Venezuela and have more on the line," said Michael Shifter, a scholar on Latin America at the Inter-American Dialogue policy group.
Exiled communities -- most notably the Cubans who fled Fidel Castro's communist island 67 years ago -- often back tougher strategies to bring about political change back home. Their activism lobbying the U.S. government to heighten pressure on the countries they fled can influence foreign policy in the host nation.
After a decade of economic calamity and repression, Venezuela's most consequential political constituency may now be among the millions who left, whose leaders in Washington and Miami have articulated strategies for regime change.
The country's leading opposition activist, the Nobel Peace laureate Maria Corina Machado, has mostly worked against Maduro inside the country. But she leads a large group of exiled activists, many of whom meet with senior American diplomats, Treasury officials and conservative South Florida lawmakers to advocate for a harder line on Maduro. They have also pitched an economic-recovery strategy to show they can run the country with minimal upheaval the day after Maduro is overthrown.
Venezuelans abroad have struggled, leaving parents and small children behind as they spread out across the globe. Some fled to the U.S. after trekking through treacherous jungles only to now face the risk of deportation by the Trump administration.
In Latin America, where nearly seven million of the more than eight million who have fled Venezuela reside, they have faced a backlash from some politicians who blame them for violent crime -- though many are victims of criminal gangs that joined the exodus. Chile's incoming president, José Antonio Kast, has even vowed to deport illegal migrants, largely from Venezuela.
"You'll leave with only the clothes on your back," he said.
Many of the exiled Venezuelans survive as street vendors, delivery drivers and maids. They live in democracies and don't face the risk of imprisonment for speaking out. And so many of them are calling for swift measures -- an invasion or airstrikes if need be -- so they can return home to a democracy.
"We'd go back and give what's left of our life so that future generations can have a decent country, a country that we once had with democracy," said César Pastrán, 63, a former university professor in Venezuela who now works in a call center in Chile.
Maduro says he isn't going anywhere and sees Trump's military threats as a bluff. Maduro believes the only way the U.S. can remove him is by sending in troops, which analysts say is improbable.
Katherine Fuentes, a 33-year-old Venezuelan in Bogotá, Colombia, would support a U.S. invasion to remove Maduro from power.
"If we want to see a better country for our children in the future, unfortunately I think it has to happen," said Fuentes, a mother of two who was driven from Venezuela in 2017 because of hunger. "I'd be really happy if Maduro falls."
Milena Carreño, a 44-year-old in Lima, dreams of reuniting with her mom back in Venezuela, whom she hasn't seen since she left nearly nine years ago. Her brothers and sisters, who also emigrated, now live in Spain, Brazil and Chile.
But she is skeptical that Maduro is going anywhere.
"I'd like to think that this time is different...but I doubt it," she said. "The Venezuelan government always comes out on top, which is so frustrating."
Write to Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 01, 2026 22:00 ET (03:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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