[Washington Examiner] DORAL, Florida — The political banter that once took place in line for a pork and cheese-filled arepa at El Arepazo restaurant in the heart of South Florida’s Venezuelan community has died down since Nov. 3. But the fear that a socialist sympathizer will enter the White House lingers strong."Trump used the idea that the United States would turn into a Venezuela," Venezuelan American Jorge Luis Gonzalez, 58, told the Washington Examiner in a Spanish-language interview, surrounded by television screens showing unrest and soccer in his home country.
"It’s politics," he added, of the socialist label that stuck to Biden in South Florida and influenced thousands of votes in Miami-Dade County, helping deliver President Trump a solid win in Florida this year.
Gonzalez said he voted for Trump for different reasons.
"Many of us voted for Trump for all the effort he made to change things in Venezuela," he said, noting policies such as recognizing National Assembly President Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s leader, increasing sanctions, and ramping up political pressure.
His vote was also based on the pre-COVID economy.
"The economy was good. We were paying less taxes. The only big problem that Trump had was his language, the way he spoke," he said. "If he was mute, he would have won the election."
Behind the food counter, where Venezuelan men cook sweet cornbread cachapas over a griddle, and Venezuelan women take orders and serve hot plates of plantains and rice, customer conversations in the days leading up to the election often crossed the plexiglass divider.
"They were saying, ’Who are you going to vote for? Who do you support?’" said one 19-year-old server, a Venezuelan political asylum seeker who asked the Washington Examiner not to use her name for fear of political persecution in her home country.
"Many people had the idea that a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for socialism," she said, having suffered, until two years ago, the trappings of a bankrupt petro-state.