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As the US signalled a build-up of its naval forces near Venezuela in the south Caribbean Sea last week, Venezuelan migrants who fled the country amid economic hardship over the past decade and settled in Trinidad and Tobago are viewing a potential military escalation between the two with optimism.

According to migrant advocate and head of the La Romaine Migrant Support group (LARMS) Angie Ramnarine, the US’ move has been welcomed by a community eager to return to their homeland and filled with nostalgia for a country that once sought their own interests.

“They have been praying for this kind of intervention for a long time,” Ramnarine, who has spent the past five years running the programme out of the St Benedict’s Church in La Romaine, told the Express in an interview on Saturday.