ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Days after the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Narco-terrorism charges, Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is considering opening its own case against Maduro.
Florida now has the largest population of Venezuelans in the U.S., more than 49 percent, driven mainly by economic hardship and oppressive rule under Maduro’s regime.
Data analyzed by the UCF Puerto Rico Research Hub shows that Orange County’s Venezuelan population has more than doubled from 2021 to 2024, going from just over 33-thousand to more than 70-thousand.
Jose Gamboa, a political refugee who actively protested Maduro’s regime, is among the more than 8 million Venezuelans estimated to have left the country after 2014.
He says he was among the students who held demonstrations at his college, La Universidad Central de Venezuela, back in 2014.
“They would threaten us, they would say that they’re going to shoot us,” Gamboa recalled. He emphasized, “But we believed always that the risk of staying silent was bigger.”
He recalled the dangers he faced with peers often facing tear gas, real and rubber bullets, and often arrests by the country’s national guard for expressing opposition.
Gamboa often attended protests and became the Youth Outreach Director for one of the anti-Maduro opposition parties.
But amid death threats aimed at both him and his family, he migrated to the U.S. in 2016 and a decade later became a U.S. Citizen.
Fernando Rivera, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida, explained the dire situation in Venezuela where government opposition can lead to harassment, jailing and even killing.
He said both economic and political factors have led to waives of migration with many Venezuelans first arriving in South Florida and then eventually heading to Central Florida, adding that the population growth is following an upward trend.
“The exodus of Venezuelans from the current situation, that is still happening,” said Rivera, “The opportunities. That we have with entry-level jobs, they tend to migrate to central Florida.”
Days after Maduro’s capture, Gamboa said Venezuelans and Venezuelan-Americans, for the first time in decades, are experiencing new optimism.
“We all in unison believe that the capture of Maduro was necessary to at least begin the process of change,” said Gamboa.
Channel 9 asked Gamboa about what he is hearing from relatives in Venezuela.
He described a sense of anxiety and quietness on the streets,
“There are quiet celebrations because you also don’t want to publicly celebrate what happened in Venezuela because the regime is still essentially in place and they could come for you,” said Gamboa.
He added people there are also starting to stockpile essentials out of fear the country could destabilize further.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2026 Cox Media Group
