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Guest Columnist – Will we end up in a war with Venezuela?

(Pictures/Morgan Smith)

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by our guest columnists do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of this publication.

Morgan Smith

Writer and photographer. Former Colorado legislator, former director of the Colorado government.

Morgan-smith@comcast.net.

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This article is about Venezuelans because I think they are a microcosm of this immigration dilemma that is increasingly dividing our country. Should we be punishing those many thousands who came here legally? Will we end up in a war with Venezuela? That seems like madness. Isn’t there a better way? Look first at some history.

In the mid-90s, as Director of the Colorado International Trade Office, I took a group of Colorado companies to a mining and energy-related trade show in Caracas. Our booths were swamped. Why? Because we had a professor from the Colorado School of Mines with us. Mines was the gold standard for working for the national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Even the President of the company was a graduate.

That quickly changed with the election of Hugo Chavez in 1999. Cronies replaced professionals, production plunged and Venezuelans became more and more impoverished. Imagine having the world’s largest oil reserves together with wide-spread poverty.

This, in part, is why some 7 million Venezuelans have fled. 25% percent of the population. Transpose this to the United States and you’d be talking of 80 million Americans fleeing. Many Venezuelans simply crossed the border into Colombia but when that country became overwhelmed, there was a shift to the United States, a much longer and more dangerous trip, featuring the deadly Dairen Gap.

Will we end up in a war with Venezuela?

On September 13, 2022, I was invited on my first US Border Patrol “ride-along.” We observed several detentions in the Anapra-Sunland Park, New Mexico area and then the lead agent said, “Let’s go to the Chihuahuita neighborhood of El Paso where a few migrants have crossed the river.”

Imagine our surprise when we got there and found approximately 400 migrants, almost all Venezuelans, lined up to be processed. They were orderly, cheerful and optimistic.

The border was then closed due to Title 42 and Venezuelans congregated in a tent city on the riverbank on the Juárez side, hoping that Title 42 would be reversed and they could wade across and apply for asylum.. In October, there was a rough group of tents with about 150 people.

Later in November when I drove there alone, this crude tent city had expanded to more than a thousand, all living on the riverbank without any basics like toilets or cooking facilities. Initially I was afraid to get out of my car, figuring they would aim anger at the US at me but when I did, I was treated with the utmost courtesy and cheerfulness.

This was also true of the many Venezuelans in and around the Sacred Heart Church in El Paso. Work was an issue. One young man set up a barber chair in the alley to make a little money. Another had prepared a business card announcing his various skills.

We saw the same in Denver, Colorado in bitter cold January 2024 – young Venezuelans on 38^th Avenue offering to wash car windows.

Will we end up in a war with Venezuela?

Also in January, 2024, I interviewed a Venezuelan woman named Iris Segura at the Sacred Heart church. She and her family had spent three months traveling from Venezuela to our border, had been robbed twice and were to go to New York City the next day. Their parole hearing, however, wasn’t until March 7, 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky.

I’m citing these details because the many Venezuelans we have met were the most impressive nationality in terms of qualities for entry into the United States.

Many came via President Biden’s January 2023 parole program for certain nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela but there wasn’t sufficient support for the receiving cities, prompting a predictable backlash. Nonetheless, I think that the vast majority would have been a major asset to the US as well as allies in the opposition to the Maduro regime in their home country.

More came after the July 2024 presidential elections in Venezuela when Nicolás Maduro, the sitting president declared himself the victor despite overwhelming evidence that his opponent, Edmundo González had won a decisive victory.

However, in March 2025, President Trump revoked this program which I think was a grave mistake. These roughly 600,000 Venezuelans who came here legally should be given a chance to show that they can be good citizens.

Of course, there are exceptions. In February, 2024, I photographed a heavily tattooed woman outside the Sacred Heart church in El Paso. She turned out to be nicknamed La Barbie ( Estefania Primera) and was later arrested and accused of being a member of the Tren de Arugua gang that got its start at the Torocón prison in Venezuela. I think, however, that claiming that the Tren de Arugua – and now the non-existent Cartel de los Soles – is a dominant and dangerous force amidst these thousands of Venezuelans is false and just an excuse to go after President Madero.

For starters, therefore, why not focus on this large, mostly very positive Venezuelan population. Do what law enforcement is supposed to do and weed out the dangerous ones, then give those who have followed the law the break they deserve. Use them as a template for a revised, more humane and economically rational immigration policy.

In the meantime, let’s not go to war with Venezuela.