‘Hungry for justice’
Members of the Venezuelan diaspora community in the US have likewise applauded the bounty as sending a strong signal against the Maduro administration.
Aminta G, a Venezuelan business owner who is a permanent resident in the US, has lived in Texas for decades but yearns to go back to her home country.
She asked to use a pseudonym, for fear her words could put her family in Venezuela in danger.
“I’m hungry for justice,” Aminta said. “There’s been too much suffering for too long.”
The bounty, she explained, helps to legitimise the opposition’s push against Maduro’s government.
“By having that $50m reward on this man’s head, it’s confirmation that we are not dealing with a bad president,” she said. “He’s a criminal.”
Maria, meanwhile, told Al Jazeera she has experienced Maduro’s campaign of oppression firsthand.
Maduro’s government, she said, fired her from her post as prosecutor. She never received a formal explanation for her dismissal, but to Maria, the reasons were clear.
“The true reason I was dismissed was because I refused to participate in corruption, the fabrication of criminal cases and the prosecution of innocent people,” she said.
“Inside the justice system controlled by the regime, it was common for prosecutors and judges to be pressured into accusing people without evidence. I refused to do it.”
She has since sought asylum in the US, where her application is pending.
Her stay in the US, however, is precarious. Currently, Maria is staying legally in the US under a designation called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a form of short-term protection for people whose home countries are deemed unsafe.
She has nightmares, though, about being deported to Venezuela, where she fears torture could await her. The Trump administration has sought to eliminate TPS for many recipients, including Venezuelans, as part of a crackdown on immigration.
Still, she backs Trump’s bounty campaign. Even if the reward alone is not the solution to all of Venezuela’s problems, Maria said it nevertheless tells her something she needs to believe: that the man responsible for her suffering is viewed as a criminal by others, too.
It’s enough to make her use a word she’s cautious about: “hope”.
“Our hope is real,” she said. “But it is not naive.”
