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The arrest of dictator Nicolas Maduro “was a big day for anyone that believes in democracy and freedom,” Venezuelan exile Rafael Pineyro just told me.

I’m in Doral, a suburb of Miami with the greatest number of Venezuelan exiles in America. And I just met Rafael Pineyro, a local city councillor who was only a kid when his entire family fled Venezuela in 1999.

Rafael said it was his grandfather who rang the alarm, noticing that the socialist revolution in Venezuela had all the hallmarks of Cuba’s Communism. They got out as soon as they could.

Rafael told me he’s never been back to Venezuela. He’s built a life in Florida, and has a family of his own — born and raised in America. But he deeply wants to return to Venezuela, even just to show his family where he comes from. And for the first time, he says, that seems possible.

I asked him what he thought about critics of Donald Trump’s dramatic nighttime arrest of Maduro, and he didn’t hold back.

Rafael is right — the toppling of a brutal dictator is a “big day for anyone that believes in democracy and freedom”. Maduro wasn’t actually the president; he stole the election and used the power of the state to become Latin America’s biggest drug kingpin. “They’re just criminals,” he told me.

He saved his harshest words for New York City’s new mayor, the socialist Third Worldist, Zohran Mamdani, who blasted Trump’s daring mission, saying “Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law.”

Almost every word of that sentence is untrue: Venezuela has waged a form of warfare against America with its massive drug smuggling operation; the arrest wasn’t an invasion, but rather an arrest in support of a criminal indictment; and there is no law against the U.S. president using the military — the Constitution literally makes him the commander in chief. Rafael absolutely scorched Mamdani, telling me, “Shame on him!

Because he’s representing our city where a lot of Venezuelans reside… He should know better. What has been taking place in Venezuela for 26 years?” Watch the whole interview. I’m so glad I met Rafael, who seems like a great American — and a great Venezuelan.

And what a refreshing antidote of common sense to all of the hand-wringing from leftist journalists and politicians who are just mad that an enemy of the United States was taken down a peg. I’ve got to go now — tonight is the big pro-freedom rally here in Doral. I’ll have more reports soon!

If you can help cover the cost of my cameraman Efrain and me, please do by clicking here or going to www.VenezuelaIsFree.com.

Between our economy-class airfare and modest hotel, we’re still likely to spend $3,000 on this project. We sure could use your help — especially since most media companies, like the CBC, are pro-Maduro and anti-Trump.

Please chip in to help us tell the other side of the story, like we did with Rafael!