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03/19 03:07 CDT A baseball title unleashes the happiness Venezuelans kept bottled up for years A baseball title unleashes the happiness Venezuelans kept bottled up for years By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) --- There's happiness, and then there's Venezuelan happiness. It feels sweeter. Louder. Deeper. Maybe because it doesn't arrive as often. Or because it has been repressed by security forces and self-censored to avoid jail. Or because it seems collectively and individually unattainable. But the nation felt it Wednesday. Its people cried, yelled, danced, hugged and drank after Venezuela's 3-2 victory over the United States in the World Baseball Classic final the previous night brought out the emotion. "We hadn't expressed this happiness that we want to shout," hairdresser Deyanira Machado said outside a beauty salon in Caracas, the capital. Unlike so much here, the score on televisions across the country was final. It was not going to change in the coming minutes or days. It was not subject to interpretation. And the young and old, politically active or not, rich and poor, exhaled after holding their breath for years. "We had that happiness stored away to unleash it properly one day, like last night, and even better than last night," Machado said. The victory arrived after two dizzying months for Venezuelans. They started the year seeing their authoritarian president of almost 13 years, Nicols Maduro, spirited away in the night by the U.S. military and emerging handcuffed in New York City. Then they saw the White House work with ruling-party loyalists, not the political opposition, to try to turn the country around. While thousands of Venezuelans abroad celebrated Maduro's fall, nobody here dared to publicly express even a hint of approval. Brutal government repression, particularly after the 2024 presidential election, had taught them to restrain themselves from expressing facts or emotions that could be considered antagonistic. Happiness, or dissent, was policed. People who celebrated what ample credible evidence showed to be a resounding win for the opposition candidate became government targets after electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner without presenting evidence to back their claim. Social media posts and WhatsApp statuses were enough to land someone in jail. Fear, anger and disappointment festered. Even neighborhood group chats went quiet as disagreements with neighbors became too risky. Venezuelans adapted yet again, always feeling like the other shoe is about to drop. Adults became solely focused on "resolver," figuring out their every day, working one, two or three jobs to afford just food. Triple-digit inflation made anything but necessities a luxury. Acting president Delcy Rodrguez declared a national "day of joy" after the game ended, making it a nonworking holiday for anyone except essential workers. Not that anyone needed permission to skip work or school. It was a given the moment the game ended and the noise began. People banged pots and pans across Caracas as a racket of honking horns from cars and motorcycles took over some roads. Venezuelans in public plazas sang the national anthem with tears streaming down their faces. The entire city seemed to be awake well past midnight. Grocery carts at 24-hour stores filled up with beer. Unfiltered joy filled the streets and social media well into Wednesday. The red, yellow and blue flag hung from windows, waved from motorcycles and became a scarf. "This championship isn't just about a baseball game, as people may think," hospital employee Lanjhonier Lozada said as he walked to work Wednesday waving a Venezuelan flag and high-fiving equally overjoyed strangers. "This game is historic. Words fail me," he said. "We are world champions! Who would have imagined it?" Who would have? The myriad children who play in local leagues and dream of MLB careers. But it might have been harder for their parents to believe in the possibility. Adults, after all, have been hardened by a crisis that pushed more than 7.7 million Venezuelans to leave their country and saw world leaders use their nation's name as a synonym for trouble. So when the players lifted the trophy, they lifted the spirits of Venezuelans around the planet. "This triumph isn't just celebrated in Venezuela. In every corner of the world, there is a Venezuelan," said Yenny Reyes, a mom of two young baseball fans. "I'm convinced that this is Venezuela's year," she said. "This is the beginning of many good things to come for Venezuela." ___ Regina Garcia Cano has covered Venezuela for The Associated Press from Caracas for four years.

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