Venezuelans in Antigua Condemn Article Portraying Maduro Positively
Venezuelans living in Antigua and Barbuda have issued a sharp rebuke of a recent article they say misrepresented President Nicolás Maduro and ignored the reality facing millions of their compatriots.
In a statement shared publicly, the group said the portrayal of Maduro as a “good man,” framed in anti-imperialist rhetoric and presented as a victim, does not reflect the lived experience of Venezuelans at home or abroad.
“If you are going to publish something, at the very least it should be the truth,” the statement said. The writers stressed that the depiction “does not represent us as Venezuelans.”
They pointed to mass protests that erupted just months ago, when millions took to the streets across Venezuela calling for international intervention to help end what they describe as dictatorship and repression. The group said similar expressions of desperation were visible in Antigua, where Venezuelans gathered in churches to pray and “begging for someone to remove that dictator.”
The statement questioned how such coverage could appear despite what it described as extensive, well-documented evidence of abuses under the Maduro government, including the imprisonment of people for speaking out, the operation of detention and torture centers such as El Helicoide, and the collapse of basic services.
“Did you really not know that there are hundreds of people imprisoned simply for speaking out against Maduro?” the statement asked, adding that millions face hunger and that more than nine million Venezuelans have fled the country.
Writing from exile, the group said the article was “deeply painful,” accusing it of “whitewashing” a regime they hold responsible for persecution, forced exile and the erosion of democratic institutions.
“That is not journalism,” the statement concluded. “That is disinformation.”
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Any Antiguan that never lived in Venezuela under Chavez/Maduro regime want to say anything about this?
In 2020 I met a young Venezuelan lady that told me she that as much as she is proud to be Venezuelan she is fleeing it because the currency and her passport is worthless. Trump chose a surgical extraction instead of a years-long war…Have we forgotten Iraq? He may face problems in congress now because of it but had he gone to them there would have been no element of surprise…and we all know congress would not have hesitated to approve a war on an oil-producing country
I saw the article as well,and it was distasteful to say the least.
An article full of hypocrisy and just, eeew.
😂
We stand with you Venezuelan people, we stand with you. We the righteous who condemns all corruption and persecution of the innocent, no matter who they are.
We stand with you and know the truth.
I for one know the truth.
Continue the fight, and I’m right here fighting with you.
Bravo!
Same can be said about persons visiting China and come back glorifying the regime.
Don’t worry, the imperialist will now get all the oil. Was it Maduro that kept the country down or was it the same Saviour that put all the sanctions on the country to make it crumble. Oh, they ensured that you guys starve because they want you to rise up against the leader (oh how they cared about you). Don’t worry, you are doing exactly as intended.
Bigs plans already on the way to sell off all the oil. It is already stated, the oil belongs to them, not the Venezuelan people.
@JBF: LOL ignorant person that never lived in Venezuela. Ask Venezuelans who work at PDVSA at what price and who take the oil out of the Country at lower price than market price. Why do you think Cuba, Russia, China, Iran was doing in Venezuela for years? Playing Baseball?
USA in any article mentioned is going to take the oil for free or is going to purchase the Oil at Market price?
Maduro use to sell the Barrel of oil regardless the fluctuations of the market at fix price lower by a lot and losing revenues. That was the main reason the oil infrastructure deteriorate because they were unable to profit enough to reinvest.
But anyway, there’s millions of Venezuelans that are tooooooo happy that USA want to buy all oil production at market price, and they took out Maduro. Nobody can’t argue against that factor.
Yes it was maduro who kept the country down..investigate.. sanctions were put in place for government banks, institutions and individuals directly connected to the regime not to private owned companies inside the country.. now that the regime control ports and to this date does not permit these all companies or individuals to import food and medicine is another story same with banks.. state owned banks are sanctioned but you have private banks working inside and out of venezuela offering accounts in usd for example Banesco panama, banesco usa, mercantil and others so before any other person come with the same old sanction story it is not true there is even one venezuelan bank here in antigua and barbuda spewing same nonsense of sanctions so they don’t pay their costumers.
Now you saying that the imperialist are gonna take the oil well as stated the money of that oil that’s gonna get sold on the market will be used for venezuela and the people we will see if that’s true in the coming months and years. I find it funny when people say they will take the oil in exchange for nothing isn’t that was have been happening all along by other countries including CARICOM nations? Venezuelans have not seen a cent from the sale with preferential price of oil and other fossil products to this region.. can you tell me what benefit does the Venezuelan diaspora have in the caricom in exchange for all the money Venezuela have given to you guys? or don’t go to far what has Antigua and Barbuda done for the Venezuelan diaspora in exchange for preferential prices, vouchers for the elderly for food and utilities? answer NONE! so yes let the imperialist take the oil in exchange for the liberation and progress of the country.
So the evil Trump took out the evil Maduro. Ok. Why does America have to control Venezuela? Can’t they run their own country?
@Smith.
And we the critical thinkers do know that our very own GB and a few others in Caricom are directly connected to that corrupt regime in the washing of money and preferential oil prices.
The WIOC president was not detained,searched(phone) for no damn apparent reason.
Our major concern has always been how deep and far our own PM is in thid mess.
Like I keep telling these jokers..US will do what US do, but what are we doing right here at home?
How messy is our PM?
I know the answers, but it is for the citizens of Antigua to not continue to put their trust in a corrupt man.
The WIOC buy their oil from Venezuela cheap, then turn around and sell their take at huge profits to governments of the Caribbean, who in turn sell their portion at a massive profit.
Why you think that gas is so expensive in the Carribean? The WIOC is just the middle man, they produce no oil. They just store it a distribute it, and some cases do a little refining.
There is a reason why Maria Browne and a few others are on the WIOC board. GB couldn’t do it, because it would be considered a ” conflict of interest”.
So they can talk all they like, but everyone has exploited Maduros corruption to the benefits of their own pockets. And it’s been going on for years. How you think GB got rich so fast?
Corrupt oil money. I know this because I’m a business man and had these very same kind of offers came to my doorstep.
But we must learn to avoid temptation as leaders, and start looking out for the people who put you there, instead of your own pockets.
The Venezuelan people in general has not benefited from their oil, and that’s their major issue. They have nothing to show for the resources Venezuela has, nothing.
WHERE IS YOUNG ANTIGUAN COMMUNIST???? WHERE U AT???? COME CHECK THIS OUT AND COMMENT…..OHH YAC!!!!! WHERE YA AT!?!?!?!
The Socialist utopia dream of hugo Chavez for Venezuela has failed just like every country who gave socialism a shot…..That wacko Bernie Sanders wanted that for the US lol…..
I am not going to have an academic discussion about these people who are from Venezuela, we have Gaston here doing a lot of repression of citizens who oppose him and he just get his political police gang to move on the people with machine guns and tear gas, over there n Barbuda even senior citizens the police pull machine guns on threatening their lives to get the lands to be sold to white people as Gaston say he can sniff out the billionaires and Barbuda probably through gentrification will be a jumby bay on steroids.
Venezuelans feel the pain. But I don’t have to be in Venezuela or Cuba to know that America is fully responsible for the bad economic situation both in Venezuela an Cuba. Venezuela has been experiencing economic sanctions for years imposed on it by the US and some of its allies. Venezuela was forced to sell it oil at a discounted price. The sad thing about it is that America boldly stated it wanted to cripple the economy of Venezuela because of its ties with China, what America is saying once you have a different political philosophy from theirs you must be destroyed; so who is the criminal DICTATOR. After Maduro was removed from Venezuela Trump and his cronies including his Secretary of state got busy like a group thugs trying to decide how much of Venezuelan oil the must keep for themselves. This is all about American GREED. So you Venezuelans in Antigua and Venezuela your suffering is mainly as a result of America’s imperialistic activities towards Venezuela and the excess greed and selfishness America. For America the world exist only to serve their interest.
@ Pat even though the US sanctions did contribute to the economic instability it’s the Venezuelan government who caused those sanctions to be imposed because of human rights violations that only worsened when they started doing illegal business with Russia, neighboring drug cartels and to put the cherry on the cake Maduro became a dictator….. It’s actually mainly the Venezuelan government’s activities that caused the sanctions not imposed by only the US but also allied nations…Get y’all damn facts straight!
Did you read the article?
@Pat are you for real? You never live in Venezuela under Chavez/Maduro regime and have the ball to come here and say you know better than Venezuelans that their economy is a mess due USA Sanctions? That is pure ignorance from you pretending to know this better than them.
Also you want to tell a Cuban same story about “imperialism”? You are trying to act politically correct against USA without any ground. Because you don’t like USA..any country that say anything against them you will stand and applaud them and think they economic failures is because sanctions, not because those socialist are full of populist speeches but no skill in how to drive the economy of a country.
@Pat January 12, 2026 At 7:21 pm
It is true. People don’t really see the root of their problems. They only see the consequences. And that even when it is clear to see that outside forces are controlling their condition. Soon when we cannot travel to Europe or North America, because they do not like us having an income stream that they cannot control, we will blame our government. However they can have any income stream they want, even slavery. Slavery was the biggest income stream in those days. Europe build their empire on the backs of the Atlantic Slave Trade. And did America. Cuba is now more then sixty years under a USA embargo. Which means, Cuba is prevented from taking part in world trade. And that is decided by one country and one country only. I mean, I can imagine how hard it must be for the Cuban people to live under that embargo for so many years. Yet the very same Cubans were able to assist many so called third world countries in various aids such as medical aid. And even militarily assist Mozambique in the fight against apartheid and South Africa. They provided our people free scholarships to study at their universities. We now have many doctors that have studied in Cuba. Chavez took the oil from his country and shared it with the rest of the Caribbean and South America. Providing us with the most favorable payment terms. Especially during Covid when we had no money to purchase oil to run our electricity plants. Trinidad and Guyana have oil but they never offered to share it with their Caricom brothers.
Cuban and Venezuelans need to look a little deeper into what is the cause of their suffering.
Less We Forget…As much as I personally like to goof off with my comments I know for a fact alot of u on here are real DUNCE HEADS like yourself…..People like you seem to be the type to think it’s always someone else fault so no accountability…..It’s America’s fault not Chavez or Maduro doing bullshit……..
When man end up on the corner like bums they say it’s the system fault not their fault for not paying attention in class or giving a shit bout a basic education…Then they say system keep them down when the whole time they were self destructing….Less We forget can’t blame USA for Venezuela collapse because before Chavez and Maduro the country was a power house in South America….
Oh BTW just so u know we black people sold our own people to Europeans………..That was where we learned black people badminded and will always sell out…. 500 of us on a plantation with 8 white masters and we were so afraid……
@ Smith and others. Have you listened to the American officials after Maduro was removed from Venezuela? If you did not let me remind, they claimed that the oil belonged to the US and that they would sell the oil and that President Trump would control the revenues from the sale. Also they admitted that they wanted China out of Venezuela by the way China is the US major trading partner and is heavily in in the US. From what the US is saying it is clear that they moved into Venezuela to protect their interest and establish control over the resources. Listen to the address of the US ambassador to the UN as he spoke to the UN security council on the Venezuelan issue, he made it abundantly clear that the US wanted Russia, China and Iran out of the region. This has nothing to do with drugs or human rights but all to do with America attempting to control other nations properties. So stop being blind deaf and dumb, just listen to the US officials as they recite their daily mantra…AMERICAN INTEREST, AMERICAN INTEREST!!!
@Pat and @Less We Forget:
I’m Cuban, both of you are clueless of why Cuba ended in so bad shape. Your eyes are so blind, your ears are so clogged and your tongue is so free that want to talk about a topic that Both of you know anything. Just enough for me to read your comments and I feel sorry for how the propaganda against USA make believe people that never lived in Cuba make such statements.
Is ridiculous how you guys are ignoring decades of a system that only allows by moral and by law a single political party and nothing can be against it. Both of you guys are not capable to understand how Castro destroyed a rich country and make his family a Dinasty and becomes the owners of the whole Cuba.
USA is the 3 commercial partner of Cuba. Cuba always trade with the whole world. But guys hate too much USA that jump quickly to blame them for your failures. Corruption is always put it aside. For you guys doesn’t matter how a group of corrupt people in charge of a government can damage seriously a country, is always Iike socialists, blame external person. In this case Blame the “Imperialism or Capitalism”, 0 accountability of your mistakes, is the typical attitude of downplay your mistakes.
Are some of these people really this Stupid,
Arguing just for arguing sake?
First of all, it’s a totally different argument when you are talking “Government policies” and “private sector”
Yes, China is the US biggest “private sector” traders, but not the US” closest” ally. Two totally different things.
We are arguing about a government and the private sector in the same argument, and conflating the two.
The policies of China’s Government is an afront to the US(government) and the ingenuity of the people(private sector) is the biggest sort after product in the world right now.
Two different things.
America doesn’t hate Venezuela or China for that matter, they don’t hate the people, they hate their political policies, two different things.
You guys are trying to have a philosophical argument and a political one in the same breath.
This is not about the color of a man’s skin or the shape of his head, it’s about political views, that’s it.
No one is saying that the Chinese people or the Venezuelan people are not great people, but their government has totally different political policies to almost every country in the western hemisphere. The same way the Arab nations have totally different policies.
That’s this war is about, and here we are going back hundreds of years talking about slavery and all kind of racial crap.
The ” government” of Venezuela has them where they are. Plain and simple. It’s the ” government” who suppressed their people. They are the ones who abuse their power, not the people.
Wise up folks.
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