Several Redhawk students are keeping their eye on the power struggle in their homeland of Venezuela. On Wednesday, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro spent the day struggling to maintain his grip on power with strong anti-government May Day protests in Caracas, one day after interim president Juan Guaido marched through the capital city with opposition forces. Guaido’s uprising comes after years of economic decline as Maduro succeeded longtime socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

Sophomore Valeria Fleitas Hernandez moved to the United States with her family only one year ago, fleeing challenging living conditions with resources such as medicine made scarce by Maduro’s government.

“We had to move here because we weren’t able to like, I’m going to say, survive there,” Hernandez said. “It was really bad. There’s like no food or medicine. Moving was like, fine, because we came in airplane, other people came by boat. Our family still lives there, so they’re having a hard time trying to I survive.”

The family of fellow sophomore Maria Germano Tanasi, who has been in the U.S. for two years,  had a similar experience coping with shortages of basic necessities.

“We moved here because of this situation that happening in my country and because we cared about our security,” Tanasi said. “They have trouble finding food and also when they get sick there’s isn’t medicine available. I want to see change basically, change in government and change in the economy and society so I can go back there.”

She is hopeful that that Guaido can depose Maduro and improve conditions back in Venezuela.

“I love Guiado basically, he’s brought so much joy to Venezuelans because we are finally looking for a change in the government,” Tanasi said. “I hope he’s the new president and he can fix the economy in this social problems.”

After gaining asylum status in the U.S., Hernandez was faced with learning a new language in a different environment. But no matter what she endures here, she is paying attention to the unrest in her homeland.

“We came here and to work, so it’s pretty hard for us: a new life, new country, new language,” Hernandez said. “Well, my family and I like really a government change that will be like awesome for everybody because other people suffering for that and people that migrate to other countries and not only the U.S. We think that Guaido is a good person, so I will be fine if he was their elected president because we could run like free elections.”

Sophomore Gaby Bordones has lived in the U.S. since the age of 5, only returning once to her mother country where armed civilian groups use violence and murder to silence dissenters.

“We had a lot of other family moving here, so we just kind of followed them,” Bordones said. “A lot of my family has suffered because they don’t have electricity right now. Maduro’s regime is terrible because many have Venezuelans died. It’s like impressive their own people could do that to others that live in their country, it’s just terrible. I want to see the president right now to leave so our government will get better.”