She did not want a foreign power to intervene, but as the situation in Venezuela worsened and attempts at diplomacy failed, it became apparent to her that an operation like the one carried out by the US at the weekend was the only way out.
“The means were not ideal,” she said. “But they were absolutely necessary.”
This is a sentiment shared by other members of the Venezuelan diaspora, who feel that the joy of Maduro’s capture and a potential end to years of misery, insecurity and mismanagement outweigh the negatives of US intervention.
Around the world, Venezuelan migrants kissed the US flag, hugged, and cried at snap rallies called upon news that Maduro had fallen. Some wore T-shirts with images of the president in handcuffs, others of Jesus hugging the outline of their country. In Colombia, they danced under the light of phone torches in the street, national flags tied around their waists.
The celebrations contrasted with concerns raised by some nations, including Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil and Spain, about the legality of the military intervention and the potential it could set a precedent that could destabilise the region.
But for Venezuelans such as Campbell, it is a chance to dig the country out of an entrenched state of crisis, one which has caused almost 8 million of its citizens to leave since 2014 – the largest exodus in recent Latin American history and one of the largest displacement crises in the world.
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“You can’t ask someone who has lived through a dictatorship, known misery, seen their family fragment, and migrated or fled their country not to feel joy about the capture of one of those most responsible for the disaster,” one member of the diaspora wrote on social media.
Campbell is cautious about predictingthe future.
She is supportive of Trump’s plan to rebuild the country’s oil industry and hopes Venezuelans can eventually elect their own government in an open and transparent process. She concedes rebuilding trust in public institutions will take a long time, but for the first time in years, she is experiencing a new feeling.
