Venezuela Socialists Met Shaming, Protests on Trips Abroad

Javier Fungairino was eating breakfast with his son at a bakery one recent morning when he noticed a familiar face at a nearby table: a former minister of Venezuela's socialist government whose presence reminded him of the pain he suffered when he left his homeland for Miami three years ago. "I knew it was him," the 43-year-old Venezuelan businessman said of the encounter this month. "But the first thing I asked was, 'Are you Eugenio Vasquez?', and he said, 'Yes.'"Immediately, an angry mob of scolding Venezuelan exiles surrounded the former head of state-run Banco de Venezuela, shouting "Rat!" and "Get out, thief!" until Vasquez and another man with him fled. "I never laid a finger on him. I simply raised my voice," Fungairino said. "They hate when people complain. They think they're so powerful that they're not used to that kind of treatment." More…