Venezuelans in Houston joined a worldwide rally that spanned more than 20 cities Saturday demanding the cessation of what they call the “usurpation” of their country’s government, while calling for volunteers and donations to send help to their countrymen in the economic and politically devastated South American country.

Nearly 1,000 Venezuelans congregated in a parking lot in Katy, wielding the flags of their country and wearing patriotic red, blue and yellow hats and T-shirts. Artists, comedians and personalities from the South American country living in Houston exchanged microphones between speeches of activists and politicians calling for unity behind acting President Juan Guaidó, the leader of the opposition to the government of Nicolás Maduro, who was reelected in May.

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“United we are going to prevail,” said Fanny Carreño, a Venezuelan at the event. “Guaidó is a person with good values and principles, and he is going to prevail; God is with us.”

Many of the participants believe that Maduro is going to be defeated soon.

How to help Donations: Humanitarian donations of non-perishable food, grains, baby formula, children and adult diapers, personal care articles, medicines and clothing. Packing: Organizers ask that donors bring clothing articles separated and marked as "for girls", boys, women, men, babies or toddlers. Collection point: Drop off your donation in front of the garage at this address, anytime all week long: 12009 Whittington Dr. Houston, TX, 77077. Pickup: Volunteers may be able to pick up from donors' places. Send a text message (no calls), preferably via WhatsApp, to (832) 755-4114. More information: Accion Social - Venezuela.

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“I believe we are in the crucial hours in Venezuela,” said Houston resident Cruz Graterol, a magistrate who belongs to a Supreme Court of Venezuela that operates from abroad.

Graterol told the crowd they should be packing their bags because the time to return to help rebuild Venezuela is approaching.

Mary Olivarez, an organizer who has been an opposition coordinator for previous presidential elections celebrated at the Houston consulate, urged “patience, faith and getting organized because this process could take months to be completed.”

Guaidó took the mantle on Jan. 23 under a constitutional mandate in his position as the head of the Venezuelan National Assembly by declaring a void of governance from a fraudulently reelected Maduro. The country is in a gridlock with both Maduro and Guaidó claiming to be president.

Maduro represents the line of the Chavismo, the populist regime installed in Venezuela by Hugo Chaves when he was elected in 1999 and stayed in the presidency until he died in 2013, leaving Maduro as his successor.

Chavez initially enjoyed strong support from the country that was the wealthiest Latin American nation until oil prices plunged in the 1980s. The period witnessed widespread governmental corruption, massive protests and three coup attempts.

The leftish president created popular programs and subsidies for the poor sustained by a revival of the oil prices, but his radical nationalistic and regulatory policies alienated the private sector and foreign investment, said Luis Duno-Gottberg, a Rice University professor born in Venezuela and specialized in Latin America.

While Chavez began to face widespread scarcities to fulfill promises for the poor, “The government of Maduro, which I like to call ‘Madurismo’ for it became a different animal, spiraled Venezuela down into an unattainable situation,” said Duno-Gottberg. Its inadequacy created a lack of basic necessities from food to medicines and everything in between. Mounting calamities propelled an unprecedented migration of around 2 million Venezuelans to neighboring countries and the U.S.

“Protests have been a sign of the times during the last decade in Venezuela, but a key difference in what we see now is that the poor are no longer supporting Maduro for the first time; they are rallying now for Guaidó” said Luis Duno-Gottberg. In a disastrous economy where $1 is equivalent to 138,518,000,000 Venezuelan bolivars, a currency no longer a legal tender in international exchange markets, cash subsidies are not reaching or are meaningless for the poor.

“The quality of my country in general is deplorable everywhere you look,” said Yohanna Colina, a Venezuelan resident in Houston who previously supported the Chavismo and visited the country last month.

“It broke my heart; I did not recognize my country, and it filled me with pain,” Colina said, adding that she saw people eating from garbage on the streets and heard of people dying from a lack of medical and dialysis supplies.

“It’s a disaster,” she said. “People do not even use the Bolivar (currency) anymore, it’s so devaluated that it has actually become the money with which they play monopoly.”

Call for help

An initiative called Acción Social Venezuela (Venezuela Social Action) was collecting forms of volunteers at the rally to be mobilized for a massive program to send help to people in Venezuelan.

“We have been working relentlessly to help people back in Venezuela, but we are only 25 and need the help of Houstonians,” said Diana Ment, the leader of Venezuela Social Action.

Ment explained that the group has been collecting and sending goods to Venezuelans for several years. However, she said that they now have the help of the U.S. government, which provided a container, but “the task to collect goods and fill the container is way over our capacity.”

The group is receiving donations this Sunday at three locations, while two places are going to be opened all days next week. The group has a Facebook page under Accion Social Venezuela.

“We Venezuelans abroad have raised the voice of the Venezuelans who are inside the country around the world,” said Ment. She added that the work of Venezuelan expats and immigrants had played an instrumental role in calling attention from the U.S. and other nations about the conditions in their country of origin.

During the last few years, Venezuelans, mostly from Florida and Texas where they have their largest concentrations, have lobbied legislators and organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States in Washington to take measurements against Maduro’s government.

The U.S. lent legitimacy to Guaidó by supporting his declaration as the new president Jan. 23, followed by Canada and most Latin American nations except Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Uruguay. The European Nations position is calling for new elections, which is part of Guaidó’s plan. Countries such as Russia, China, Turkey, India, Syria, Iran and South Africa are backing Maduro.

Limbo in consulate

Meanwhile, Venezuelans in Houston and the U.S. are finding themselves in legal limbo after Maduro called for the closing of embassies and consulates in the U.S. last week. The Venezuelan consulate in Houston closed its doors Jan. 23 without notice or placing information in its website. As a result, Venezuelan people continued to go to the office, located west of 610 Loop, many of them driving from faraway places as it serves the four states of Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

“I feel very impotent and frustrated after driving seven hours from Midland only to find (the consulate) closed,” Emmanuel Sanchez said on Tuesday morning outside the consulate in Houston. He said he was hoping to update his Venezuelan passport.

Jose Molero said he had driven from Port Arthur to get a travel permit for his son. “This is a not at all good surprise, to find that they are closed without informing the public!”

“We are hoping that the Venezuelan situation gets resolved for the democracy and liberty with Guaidó; it has been 20 years of misery; that’s enough,” said Hugo Vivas, another of the about ten people that went to the consulate that morning.

Workers at a contiguous office said they saw consulate officers coming briefly on Jan. 24 to the office, packing things and leaving. A person familiar with the office said that some of the diplomats flew back to Venezuela but that acting consul Katherina Liceras is in hiding after disavowing Maduro’s government.

A post circulating on social media from Chavista loyalists shows a photo of Liceras and other Venezuelan diplomats from Miami and Chicago labeled as “traitors” to Maduro.

Tensions and hopes

Experts have concerns about potential geopolitical tensions arising from the opposing powers between U.S. and Russia.

But “the predominant development this week has been certain consolidation of Guaidó as a form of paralleled government,” as opposed to a weakening, said Duno-Gottberg.

Guaidó “has moved with great prudence, very pondered, with a style that contrasts with the forceful, militaristic that has dominated the country, and at the same time establishing alliances that benefit its consolidation,” said the professor.

Many Venezuelans in Houston believe that troops entering from Colombia would resolve the gridlock between the two presidencies, a theory sparked by a recent photo that showed the U.S. national security adviser John Bolton carrying a notebook with a written phrase reading “ 5,000 troops to Colombia.”

Duno-Gottberg said it could be a mistake to think that replicating a formula such as the U.S. military operation in Panama that took down the presidency of Manuel Noriega in 1989 would work the same for Venezuela.

“Maduro’s government still has some support from highly urban sectors of the population that have high violence experience,” he said. “Controlling those sectors with people that are armed by military force could easily lead to a massacre.”

A scenario that many would find more desirable could be an international brokerage to provide a way out for Maduro, such as an exile arrangement.

“I would not be surprised if backdoor conversations are already happening,” said Duno-Gottberg.

A question remains as to which country would take such responsibility when even longtime ally countries like Cuba or China are showing lukewarm support to the Venezuelan government.

An escape could also increase the exposure of Maduro’s high-ranked loyalists who are charged in U.S. courts for alleged drug dealings.

In any case, “Venezuelans are tired of this regime; we want Maduro out now,” said Fabiola Colmenarez, a representative of Guaidó’s party Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), who resides in Houston.

olivia.tallet@chron.com

Twitter.com/oliviaptallet