STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A lot of U.S. citizens and U.S. residents have a personal stake in this story. They're Venezuelans. And among expats, there are many questions as well as celebration. NPR's Greg Allen reports.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: In Doral, a Miami suburb, where nearly half the residents have roots in Venezuela, the party lasted all weekend. But Daniel Escalante (ph) was among those struggling to understand what it means for Venezuela and the hundreds of thousands of people who fled the country and now live in the U.S.
DANIEL ESCALANTE: The news that Maduro is out is a good thing. Now, what's going to happen next and what will happen is yet to see. It's uncertain. It's a bag of mixed emotions, really.
ALLEN: Escalante, whose family fled Venezuela as a child, said some of President Trump's statements left him puzzled, including that the U.S. is in charge of the country still run by members of the Maduro regime. Also that Trump believes opposition leader María Corina Machado doesn't have the support and respect to be able to lead Venezuela. A few hours after Trump's comments, Florida Republican Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart was asked about that at a news conference.
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MARIO DÍAZ-BALART: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait. Hold on.
ALLEN: Díaz-Balart represents Doral, and along with other elected officials in Florida, has long been a staunch supporter of Corina Machado and distanced himself from Trump's assessment of her political future.
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DÍAZ-BALART: There's going to be a transition, and I'm convinced that when there are elections, whether there are new elections or there's a decision to take the old elections, the last elections, that the next democratically elected president of Venezuela is going to be María Corina Machado.
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ALLEN: For Venezuelans here, Trump's statements about Corina Machado are hard to accept. She's a Nobel Prize winner whose political coalition, according to the U.S., won the 2024 presidential election before it was stolen by the Maduro regime. Maria Teresa Morin, a political activist close to Corina Machado, has nothing but praise for President Trump and his oust of Maduro. But at a news conference Monday, she, like many Venezuelans, said she's waiting for the Trump administration to take the next steps.
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MARIA TERESA MORIN: There is still so much work to do. There are still in Venezuela a few criminals. We still have to take them away, to put them away from Venezuela, to face justice here in the United States of America.
ALLEN: At the top of her list is Venezuela's defense and interior ministers. Both have been indicted on drug trafficking charges, and the U.S. has offered multimillion-dollar rewards for help with their arrests.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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