On July 28, Adrián Albarran joined a crowd of over 1,000 fellow Venezuelans outside a Gwinnett County arepa restaurant, where they settled to watch the returns of their homeland’s presidential election.
Albarran said the crowd was “full of joy” because they expected the country’s longtime authoritarian ruler, Nicolás Maduro, to lose. But by the end of the night, Venezuela’s electoral authorities had announced Maduro as the election’s winner, and many of those gathered in Gwinnett burst into sobs.
“They were tears of frustration,” Albarran said.
The election had been plagued by irregularities, including moves by the regime to block candidates from running. After declaring victory, the government failed to provide any evidence to support the result. Analyses of vote tallies carried out by the opposition and media organizations, on the other hand, show that Maduro’s challenger had won in a landslide.
In recent days, Maduro’s decision to unleash a wave of repression as he clings to power marks a fresh blow to democracy in the region – and it could help spark a new and sizable exodus of migrants, at least some of whom would presumably be headed to the U.S. Maduro has been in office since 2013.
In just the last two years, Georgia received 25,590 Venezuelan migrants with notices to appear in immigration court to defend themselves against deportation, according to federal data compiled by Syracuse University. They make up over 20% of new deportation cases in the state.
“If Maduro stays and the dictatorship consolidates power, then the region (the U.S. and Latin America) has to be prepared for a big wave of migration starting this year and into 2025. And that would cause big problems for the region,” said Albarran, who arrived to metro Atlanta last year.
Thanks to a humanitarian protection extended to Venezuelans by the Biden administration last fall, Albarran has a temporary legal status in the country. He has also applied for asylum, which would come with more permanent protection and a path to citizenship.
Alongside other members of the local Venezuelan diaspora, Albarran has organized a rally in Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta on Saturday. It will be one of scores of protests taking place worldwide to protest the Maduro regime and the apparent electoral fraud it committed.
“We want to contribute our grain of sand and support the brave people who are protesting in Venezuela and demanding their rights be respected,” said Linda López, who moved to the Atlanta-area as a college student 25 years ago, shortly after Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chávez rose to the presidency. “We want for the world to listen to us, to support us.”
‘We’re still in this fight’
Ahead of July’s presidential election, López and Albarran said many Venezuelans had allowed themselves to feel a certain degree of optimism, with opinion polls indicating a strong lead for opposition candidate Edmundo González.
A long-awaited change in the country’s leadership would have reshaped many Venezuelan expats’ relationship with their homeland. After years of humanitarian and economic crisis, roughly 8 million Venezuelans are now estimated to be living outside the country, the second-largest displacement in the world.
“All of us want the country we are from, where we were born, to be free. We have endured many years of pain, of family separation, and that’s a trauma that many Venezuelans carry with us. So there’s a big number of Venezuelans that would like to go back to Venezuela if democracy is restored,” said Albarran.
“There’s also a big number of Venezuelans who have made a life here, who have been able to start businesses and whose kids were born here, but they would still like to go back to see their family and take their kids so they can get to know their country. From a personal standpoint, all of us are united in wanting to see Venezuela be free.”
López said she has spent many sleepless nights since July 28. According to her, reports out of Venezuela of a ruthless campaign against those challenging the declared results of the vote are unprecedented.
In the early 2000s, anti-Chavez protests in Atlanta would draw just a handful of people López said, given the limited number of Venezuelans in the area. On Saturday, he predicts the attendance will be exponentially greater.
“We’re still in this fight,” López said.
Venezuelans rally against Maduro
Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 17
Location: Woodruff Park, 91 Peachtree St NW, Atlanta, GA
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