David Smolansky, opposition mayor of El Hatillo neighborhood in Caracas, had no choice but to flee Venezuela when the socialist dictatorship threatened to arrest and imprison him like other opposition mayors. Upon escaping the socialist Venezuela, Smolansky became the third generation of his family to escape communist tyranny.

“My grandparents left the Soviet Union in 1927, my father left Cuba in 1970, so I am the third generation of Smolanskys who’ve have to leave a country because of a totalitarian regime.”

Read his complete story in BBC News.