Bogota, Colombia – On the night of July 28, Gaby Arellano, a 41-year-old Venezuelan political refugee, watched her country’s presidential election unfold from Colombia’s capital, Bogota.
She expected the outcome to spark a new future for Venezuela. That hope, however, turned to disappointment and frustration when Venezuela’s electoral body claimed victory for incumbent President Nicolas Maduro.
The opposition has since accused the Maduro government of stealing the election. And Arellano has become one of the most prominent voices in a protest movement that has spilled beyond Venezuela’s borders, as citizens clamour for transparent voting results.
With nearly 8 million people abroad, the Venezuelan diaspora represents more than one-fourth of the country’s total population — and large swaths of that group have thrown their support behind pro-democracy efforts back home.
Arellano, a former member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, has been a leader in those efforts, joining thousands of fellow migrants and refugees in calling on foreign governments to pressure Maduro to release the full voting results.
“Do not be silent. Do not be accomplices,” Arellano told a room full of Colombian senators in an August 6 address.
Humanitarian networks based abroad have been repurposed to mobilise protests. Expat-led social media platforms are sharing the latest news about the elections.
Carolina Jimenez Sandoval, president of the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group, said that, this past year, she has seen Venezuelans abroad form political organisations and consolidate their power like never before.
“In the case of the Venezuelan diaspora, we’re seeing a much stronger political voice,” Jimenez Sandoval explained.
“It’s not only because of their size, but because of their visibility and their political goals.”