VP Pence To Meet With Venezuelan Exiles In Doral
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Doral is getting ready to host Vice President Mike Pence Wednesday as he meets with members of the Venezuelan exile community to discuss the ongoing political crisis in the South American country.
"It's not to visit a Catholic Church. It's to visit the Venezuelans where the Catholic Church has been able to provide the gathering, has been able to reach out to the people," said Archdiocese of Miami Communications Dir. Mary Ross Agosta.
The situation in Venezuela, which has been escalating over the past few months, was only made worse after a new constituent assembly was sworn in earlier this month.
The constituent assembly is expected to give President Nicolas Maduro sweeping powers.
"We want Mr. Maduro to leave the power. I think it's enough," said Morris Di Giovanni, who's concerned about the direction the country's been heading in. "We're going to stand for freedom and civil rights to be respect as well."
"We appreciate the work Mike Pence are doing because Venezuela needs United States and other country to help Venezuela," said Osiel Ruiz, who's from Venezuela.
"Now that he's going to be here in Doral we're going to be able to give him our point of view and give him a lot of ideas of what we think should be done in Venezuela to be able to help the resistance and help the opposition to what's going on right now," said Jorge Ruiz, who says he's thankful for the opportunity Venezuelans have to address their concerns.
City of Doral Police said people in the area should plan ahead as the vice president's visit is expected to cause traffic delays between 4 and 6 p.m. Wednesday.
"We recognize that these are difficult traffic hours for our community so we encourage everyone to drive safely, drive with patience and understand that we will keep any closures as short as possible and do everything in our power to keep traffic flowing," said City of Doral Police Department Capt. Carlos Arango.
The vice president is expected to be joined by Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. Marco Rubio and Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart. Pence is scheduled to conclude his visit with formal remarks to the community at 4:05 p.m.