2024-01-19 22:57:20
By Lautaro Grinspan – NBC News
When far-right economist Javier Milei was sworn in as Argentina’s new president last month, his supporters thronged the streets of the capital, Buenos Aires, carrying the national flag and wearing Messi soccer jerseys.
Among the sea of blue and white there were a handful of Venezuelan flags, a recurring image in Milei’s campaign events.
Laura Ruiz held one of them. When Milei left the presidential palace to give a speech, Ruiz waved her flag enthusiastically. Her hope, she said, was that Milei would see the flag and know that Venezuelans like her support him.
Venezuelan immigrants hold an Argentine and a Venezuelan flag during a march in support of President Mauricio Macri in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 24, 2019.Ricardo Ceppi/Getty Images file
The immigrant, 36, was not yet able to register to vote in the October elections, but says she became involved “indirectly” in the political process, advocating for Milei and against the left within her circle.
It is an increasingly common story in Argentina and throughout America. Scarred by economic collapse, widespread corruption and the repression of civil liberties associated with socialist leaders in their country, many of the millions of recently relocated Venezuelans have lent their support to right-wing movements across the continent. Diaspora activism has occurred against a backdrop of warnings from right-wing forces that Venezuelan-style socialism risks spreading.
“Venezuela represents something like the specter of communism […] The right in the region has found in Venezuela a clear image that symbolizes the failures of that system,” declared Ariel Goldstein, a political scientist at the University of Buenos Aires.
Throughout his campaign, Milei brandished chainsaws at rallies to underscore his support for cutting public spending. In his first speech as president, he stated that failure to comply with these adjustment plans would lead the country “into a spiral of decline that will bring us the darkness of the Venezuela of Chávez and Maduro,” referring to Hugo Chávez, president from 1998 to 2013. , and his successor, Nicolás Maduro. The two other right-wing figures to whom Milei is often compared – Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro – have attempted to mobilize voters with similar rhetoric.
Experts believe there has been a receptive audience for that type of discourse among the growing Venezuelan diasporas throughout the region. In recent years, more than 7.5 million people have left Venezuela, triggering the most serious migration crisis in the modern history of Latin America.
Many are starting new lives with a marked opposition to leftist movements or candidates, which they associate with the disaster they had to leave behind.
In the United States, this dynamic has helped reinforce Latino support for Republicans in Florida, contributing to a shift to the right in recent elections in this state considered a swing state (state that swings in the vote) for a long time. Similar changes could be brewing in places across the continent with a high concentration of recent Venezuelan immigrants.
Weeks before Milei’s victory in Argentina, the regional right achieved another victory with Daniel Noboa in Ecuador. He was also encouraged by the support of the Venezuelan diaspora.
“The conditions that forced you to leave Venezuela they make you see everything in black and white“said Eugenio Martínez, a Venezuelan political analyst living in Florida. “But the politics of the receiving countries is not black and white.”
Active on social networks, but without vote
Originally from the Venezuelan port city of Maracaibo, Elisabet Hernández now lives in Córdoba, Argentina. She says she was distressed by the sky-high inflation and supply shortages in Argentina during the last left-wing government, which brought back memories of daily life in Venezuela.
“I got very depressed,” he said.
During last year’s Argentine presidential campaign, Hernández racked up tens of thousands of views on a TikTok account titled Trapped in socialism. In his videos, he said that he “came from the future” to warn Argentines of the final results of socialism and begged his users to support Milei. She also distributed pro-candidate leaflets in city parks.
“Many people have written to me to tell me that hearing my experience has opened their eyes,” he said.
According to Martínez, the Venezuelan diaspora is more politically engaged than other expatriate communities. After all, there is a widespread perception in the group that the roots of the country’s problems lie mainly in the mismanagement of the ruling regime. Many were also forced to emigrate due to political persecution.
“The Venezuelan diaspora is very politically activeboth with regard to what is happening in Venezuela and the local politics of the places where they are located,” Martínez stated.
As relative newcomers to the countries in which they have settled, it is unlikely that the majority of Venezuelan emigrants have been naturalized, meaning they cannot yet vote. But many have found social media powerful platforms to share their opinions.
In Argentina, the right-wing social media ecosystem that has been so important in bringing Milei closer – especially to young voters – has regularly published messages from Venezuelans warning against voting to the left.
José Mago, a 33-year-old Venezuelan immigrant in Buenos Aires, had opened a TikTok account thinking he would use it as a travel page. But after a couple of videos promoting Milei and criticizing the left were successful, he commented that he decided to dedicate the account to politics.
Edilber Mendoza, 21 years old, is a medical student who emigrated to Argentina from Venezuela four years ago. Days before the election, he uploaded a video to TikTok from a Milei rally, where he urged Argentines to “vote accordingly.”
“The Cubans warned us y [ahora] We let you know,” he continued. The short accumulated millions of views, and was shared by Milei himself on the internet.
Venezuelan immigrants in Mexico City, December 26, 2023. Associated Press
“We have been very influential here,” Mendoza said in an interview.
The abundance of stories like those of Mendoza and Mago does not mean that the Venezuelan diaspora is monolithic. But more liberal-leaning Venezuelans have been more careful when talking about politics in Venezuelan enclaves.
Adelys Ferro is a member of the Venezuelans with Biden group and a resident of Weston, a Miami suburb nicknamed Westonzuela for its large Venezuelan community. In the period immediately preceding the 2020 elections, He found it difficult to wear a Biden t-shirt to the supermarket without feeling uncomfortable, a brush with the social stigma that others also denounced.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a lot more respect now,” Ferro said of the dynamics within South Florida’s Venezuelan community.
Even so, Ferro is more hopeful with the Democratic message in 2024 because “Biden has been in power for three years and there is no socialism here.”
The position before Maduro is the litmus test
In response to unprecedented levels of migration across the hemisphere, right-wing figures in some countries have made anti-immigrant sentiment and nationalism a key part of their outreach to voters.
At a campaign rally in December, former President Donald Trump echoed white supremacist rhetoric when he said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” In Chile, concerns about immigration and open xenophobia against Venezuelans helped the far right there increase its influence. Immigration could also play a role in Mexico’s presidential elections scheduled for later this year.
But could nativist stances or policies that restrict immigration prevent an immigrant group like the Venezuelan diaspora from supporting right-wing politicians? Experts consider it unlikely. That is one of the lessons of the recent electoral change in Florida, where the governor, Ron DeSantis, won re-election in 2022 with 58% of the Latino votedespite sending two planes of asylum seekers, mostly Venezuelans, to Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, in what critics criticized as a political maneuver.
“It seems that the Venezuelan migrant cares more about politicians condemning the Venezuelan government and Maduro than about the immigration policies they may have,” Martínez said.
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Florida is also emblematic of the kind of political influence that long-standing diasporas can exert, especially over foreign policy. For decades, Cuban American voters and legislators have successfully influenced the hardline stance of Congress and several presidential administrations on US-Cuba relations. If it reaches similar levels of organization, the Venezuelan diaspora could contribute to diplomatic isolation of the current Chavista regime.
In Argentina, the situation remains dire. The country ended 2023 with an inflation rate above 200%, and Milei has warned that the economic outlook will get worse before it gets better. But the new president has already implemented parts of his program, reducing the role of the State. He has also ended diplomatic relations with Caracas.
Venezuelan immigrants are encouraged. Some are even postponing their plans to leave the country to try their luck in the United States. Hernández’s TikTok account is no longer called Trapped in socialism.
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