I’m at the airport now, about to board my flight back to Montreal after an extraordinary weekend in Miami.

For the past few days, I’ve been reporting from Doral, Florida — the city with the largest concentration of Venezuelan exiles anywhere in the United States. And everywhere I went, I saw people celebrating the arrest of dictator Nicolas Maduro.

And it's where I had a powerful heart-to-heart conversation with someone who understands the reality of what took place better than most: the mayor of Doral, Christi Fraga.

She told me why so many Venezuelans, Cubans, and others across Latin America see this moment as a long-overdue liberation.

She also explained why so many Western politicians, journalists, and many on the left simply don’t understand why this was necessary.

Mayor Fraga explained how “People lost everything. They've lost family members, and there's absolutely no respect for human rights. No access to medicine... the basic needs.”

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This was hardly an “act of war,” but a removal of a criminal regime that endangered its own people — and the security of the entire Western Hemisphere.

And the reason Venezuelans are dancing in the streets is simple: they finally have hope.

Could Venezuela be just the beginning? If a Communist dictatorship can fall there, many believe it could finally put real pressure on regimes like Cuba’s.

That's what you won’t hear from the mainstream media or from politicians defending “international norms” while ignoring stolen elections and mass suffering.

And you certainly won’t hear it from journalists who never left their desks. That’s why we came here.

We didn’t “monitor the Internet” from Canada. We got on a plane. We went to the heart of the exile community. And we gave a voice to people who actually lived this nightmare — and are now daring to believe it’s ending.

But travelling here wasn’t cheap.

Videographer Efrain Monsanto and I flew economy, stayed in a modest hotel, and worked long days to bring you these reports. All told, this mission will cost us about $3,000 — and we can only cover those costs with the help of viewers like you, who chip in whatever they can to help us bring you the other side of the story.

I’m heading home now — but we’ll have more reports coming soon.

If you believe these voices deserve to be heard, please help us cover the cost of this trip by clicking here or visiting www.VenezuelaIsFree.com.