Sawt Falasteen - Venezuelans in Spain rejoice at prospect of return home

Cries of "He's gone, he's gone" and "He's fallen, he's fallen" filled the air as the spontaneous, lively demonstration unfolded, with improvised singing and dancing filling the Spanish capital's Puerta del Sol square.

Sporting hats in the colours of Venezuela and brandishing the national flag, the demonstrators applauded an improvised effigy of a handcuffed Maduro held aloft above the crowd.

"I came to celebrate," said Pedro Marcano, 47, who says he is "grateful for the great service the United States has rendered to those who are in Venezuela and to those who have left it".

All he can think about is going home, but concedes that "first, we need to have a clearer picture", wiping away a tear as he thinks of loved ones he hasn't seen for 11 years.

The Venezuelan diaspora is one of Spain's largest, with around 400,000 members according to the national statistics institute INE.

- 'Nothing left to do here' -

The news of Maduro's capture is earth-shattering for some of these immigrants whose loved ones are still in Venezuela.

"As soon as they reopen the airspace, I'm going to Venezuela. I have nothing left to do here. I'm going back to my country," says Yuleida Pena, 58, who runs a shop selling Venezuelan goods in Spain.

"The worst is behind us," she said, in reference to Maduro, but added that she is "worried" about the people in Venezuela who "are still under the rule of those thieves, those crooks".

Aware that Washington acted in its "economic interest" -- eyeing Venezuela's oil and mineral reserves -- the shopkeeper said she supported restoring "economic relations with the United States, if it's for the benefit of the people, if it's to regain freedom".

Jocelin Piguave, 30, has already planned to return "home, to our country", buoyed by the "hope" of seeing opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado take power.

Many other Venezuelans in Spain said they remained cautious about their country's future.

"There are still steps missing," said 52-year-old home helper Karla Ramirez.

"There will be people (in power) who won't want to leave. And a civil war is brewing," she said, without hiding her pleasure at the advent of "change".

Y.Shaath--SF-PST