""The voice notes were terrifying," she told The Oaklandside. "I was able to hear not just the helicopters, but all the shots.""
""It was terrifying to hear her voice and me being here not able to do anything," she said."
""My family and friends are in this tensa calma," a stressful state of calm, she said. "They didn't know what was happening.""
At about 10:30 p.m., Alexandra Mendoza-Gonzalez received voice notes from her mother and uncle in Caracas capturing helicopters and gunfire near their home. Her mother lives close to the military zone where U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in an operation Venezuelan officials say left more than 100 dead. Oakland's Venezuelan American community reacted with shock and agreed Maduro's departure was long overdue, while remaining divided over the U.S. role. Community members included an engineer, a famous muralist, a former Caracas city councilmember, and a former lab analyst now running a food pop-up. Mendoza-Gonzalez left Venezuela in 2015 for an MBA at UC Berkeley and now works in tech. The Trump Administration launched a military attack; Maduro and his wife were flown to the United States to face charges including narco-terrorism and cocaine-importation conspiracies.
Read at The Oaklandside
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