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Venezuelan-Americans in South Florida react to President Trump announcement

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Posted at 7:59 PM, Mar 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-22 19:59:22-04

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — As President Donald Trump held a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Caribbean leaders over Venezuela, some Venezuelan-Americans in South Florida worry about what is happening in their home country.

“It’s been a destruction of the country,” says Soraya Exposito Shapiro, who now lives in Palm Beach County.

She says her 82-year-old father still lives in Venezuela, along with a sister and nieces and nephews.

“I talk with my family and they say it’s a ghost town,” Shapiro says.

On Friday, as the president thanked the leaders of five countries for supporting democracy in Venezuela, the administration imposed more sanctions on Venezuela, clamping down on the country’s development bank.

“I grew up in a free Venezuela and that’s what I want for my nieces and nephews and for my father I don't want him to die with sadness, you know, it is very painful for me,” Shapiro says.