Today, Aaron Barreto-Diaz, 29, is a family medicine resident at Erlanger hospital, but 12 years ago, he was living in Caracas, Venezuela.
The recent U.S. incursion into Venezuela comes with complicated feelings for him, but not for his parents, Barreto-Diaz said. His parents are happy to see former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro out of power, regardless of the price, Barreto-Diaz said.
“I’m happy Maduro isn’t there anymore,” Barreto-Diaz said by phone, “but in the same way, I wish we had been able to do that ourselves.”
The comments U.S. leaders have made in relation to Venezuela’s resources concern him, Barreto-Diaz said. So does the partial exclusion of the Nobel Peace Prize recipient and opposition leader who helped defeat Maduro in the last election, Maria Corina Machado, from conversations between the U.S. and Venezuela.
The Venezuelan president might have been captured by the U.S., but that doesn’t mean his government isn’t still in place, Barreto-Diaz said.