Venezuelans in South Florida shocked as SUV mows down group of immigrants in Texas

Most of them had crossed the Andes mountains in Colombia and crossed the jungles in Panama on foot to defy all sorts of dangers in Central America and México hoping to reach the American dream.

But what they found once they crossed the U.S. border translated into sheer terror, as they waited for a bus on a sidewalk of a Brownsville Texas street Sunday morning, when an SUV hurtling down the street suddenly veered towards the group, most of them Venezuelan immigrants, and mowed them down. At least eight people were killed and nine others left seriously injured in the incident. Authorities are investigating whether it was intentional, but one bystander later said the driver yelled obscenities towards the immigrants before he attempted to flee.

The news, which for many came through heartbreaking videos posted on social media, rasied alarms among leaders of the Venezuelan community in the United States concerned over the risks faced by thousands of Venezuelans who, after fleeing the Nicolás Maduro regime, find themselves vulnerable in the United States.

“This is a terrible tragedy,” said María Antonietta Díaz, president of the Venezuelan American Alliance, a South Florida-based organization that advocates for the interests of Venezuelan immigrants. “It is very painful that after a whole journey like the one our brothers make, after having arrived in the United States, something like this happens.”

Although authorities have not yet determined whether the incident was deliberate, some Venezuelans interpreted the events as the byproduct of the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S.

“What is happening with immigrants in the United States is very alarming and dangerous, specifically with Venezuelans who are fleeing from the crisis in Venezuela,” said José Antonio Colina, who lives in Miami and is president of the organization of Politically Persecuted Venezuelans Abroad.

“This is what happens when local governments do not take into account the consequences of their statements and actions. Clearly, the governor of Texas has criminalized immigration and it is feasible to think that what is happening is stimulated by his anti-immigrant position,” Colina said.

While the causes of the incident are still under investigation, comments made by witnesses to the local media suggest it was more than an accident.

Witnesses told the Brownsville Herald that they saw the Range Rover involved traveling at high speed and suddenly change direction towards the immigrants sitting down on the sidewalk in front of the Obispo Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center for the homeless, which had been converted into a migrant shelter because of the hundreds of immigrants passing through the area.

Luis Herrera was one of those waiting that morning for a bus to take him downtown to board another bus out of the city. Many of those with him had walked hundreds of miles for many weeks and were feeling lucky they were able to cross the border from Mexico, when they suddenly saw the SUV heading towards them.

The driver yelled obscenities towards the group as his vehicle struck the Venezuelans and later attempted to flee, saying that immigrants were invading the United States, Herrera told the Brownsville Herald.

Other witnesses told local reporters that the driver showed signs of being intoxicated.

Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez’s office tweeted that there was no indication the crash was intentional, but police are still investigating.

The victims had left the shelter, which was already full, the local media reported. The center normally gets more than 300 immigrants per day, but has seen the number increase in recent days due to fears related to the expiration on Thursday of Title 42 That federal public-health regulation, which authorizes the return of immigrants to Mexico, will be replaced by rules that many see as more strict because they involve accelerated expulsions a ban on returning to the country for five years and possible prosecution of those that enter illegally into the United States.

For the leadership of the Venezuelan opposition to Maduro, the events are just the latest evidence of the high cost in human lives caused by the socialist regime in Caracas, which they blame for having ruined the country’s economy and for having forced more than eight million Venezuelans to leave the country, seeking refuge in the United States and other countries in the hemisphere.

“What happened in Texas... is very painful. We know the vulnerability of our people who are fleeing, expelled by the Maduro dictatorship,” said opposition leader Juan Guaidó on his Twitter account.

“I send my condolences to the relatives of the victims, I demand that the facts be clarified and those responsible be punished,” said Guaidó, who is currently in the United States and says he is waiting for the necessary guarantees to be able to return to Venezuela.