‘They’re using us as pawns on their political chessboard’: How Venezuelans abroad feel the tension with the US

“They use us. Some use us as pawns in their political schemes, and others as collateral damage.”

This is how Adelys Ferro, who works at an NGO that advocates for the rights of Venezuelan immigrants, sums up the feelings of many Venezuelans living abroad after witnessing the growing tension between Venezuela and the United States, amid US President Donald Trump’s war gestures and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s call for militias to “defend the homeland.”

There is a thread that connects all the Venezuelans who spoke to CNN in Buenos Aires, Madrid and the United States. Although they are far away, they are accompanied by fear and concern about what might happen in their country, where many of them still have their families. And while they have not lost hope that the situation in Venezuela will improve, skepticism prevails.

“I don’t think anything will change. As long as the military is there, they will support the Venezuelan government,” Perla tells CNN from the door of her workplace, a restaurant that offers Venezuelan food in Buenos Aires.

While the sparring between the US and Venezuela is historic, tensions began escalating on August 7, when US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that they were doubling the reward to $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.