Venezuela’s ‘little commandos’ took on Maduro. Now they may be leading a new wave of migration

They gathered thousands of voting machine receipts – critical evidence in the opposition’s case that the election was stolen.

They were the self-styled political “commandos” with aspirations of bringing down the authoritarian government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro. Now, the opposition says, hundreds of its activists and electoral witnesses are fleeing the country amid the fallout from last month’s contested presidential election. CNN spoke to about half a dozen Venezuelans who have fled their country in the past month, some swapping clothes or hiding between bushes on their way to safety. Many migrated illegally, moving at night, and hiding during the day to avoid being stopped at dozens of checkpoints set up by Venezuelan government forces. Others said they were waved past by officers they believed to be sympathetic to the opposition’s cause. Most asked for their interviews to remain anonymous fearing government forces could go after their loved ones if they realized they had left the country. “I left my mom, she’s 84… my husband did the same. My mom told me: ‘Be strong my love, everything will be alright; joy will come back to Venezuela, I’ll be here waiting for you. If I’m not here anymore by the time you come, I’ll know at least you are a free person,’” said one woman, who fled the country with her husband and son. Her transgression in Venezuela? Helping to gather over 1,200 “actas” – the printed voting machine receipts that have become critical to the opposition’s case that the election was stolen by Maduro – the strongman leader who has ruled the country with an iron fist since the death of Hugo Chavez in 2013. Before the July 28 vote, one independent poll predicted that up to a third of Venezuela’s population would consider leaving the country if Maduro were reelected. Speaking to CNN just a few weeks later from Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and the United States, these political dissidents now may represent a new migration wave, as Venezuelans flee renewed repression at home. Viviana Save, an opposition organizer from the Andean state of Trujillo, says the repression began for her well before the election. Speaking to CNN from an undisclosed location outside Venezuela, Save said she had been moving from home to home since July 20 out of fear she’d be arrested by government forces.