The Bayfront Park Trust is offering a $25,000 reward for the person responsible for graffiti that a Miami official says was meant to threaten the Venezuelans who protested there on Saturday.
Thousands of people in Miami joined global protests over Venezuela’s recent presidential election results, as demonstrators called for leader Nicolás Maduro to release voting data and acknowledge the opposition candidate Edmundo González as the true winner.
The graffiti sprayed on the wall reads “the Bolivarian fury is here” in Spanish, a reference to Maduro’s regime and campaigns. The term has often been used by the president and his supporters.
The Hurricane season is on. Our meteorologists are ready. Sign up for the NBC 6 Weather newsletter to get the latest forecast in your inbox.
In a statement, Karen Caballero, the communications director for City of Miami District 3, said the message was spray painted by “elements of the narco-trafficking Maduro dictatorship, enraged by the significance of the rally… right at the spot where this great protest for the truth took place. This threat is further proof that the thugs of the dictatorship continue to misuse the name of the liberator Simón Bolívar, resorting to the threat written in the graffiti.”
District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo said the crime is a misdemeanor, but "what cannot be allowed... is a threat like that."
"We're not going to allow... them threaten us with their 'Bolivarian fury,'" he said. "That's why we've offered a $25,000 reward, for the fury of the law of Miami, of the United States, to fall on them."
The wall was painted over on Wednesday night.
The incident happened after the second protest at Bayfront Park this month. John Fox and his wife Andrea were two of the thousands of people who attended.
“It tells me that the movement is not dead, it tells me people are not quitting,” Fox said.
Dana Arocha was born in Venezuela and moved to South Florida when she was 5-years-old. She says even though she's far away, she won't let distance stop her from doing her part.
“I feel like by being here, we're showing our face for our country and fighting for the people who are struggling over there,” Arocha said. “Be very educated about what's going on in our country and about the crisis we have going on.”
Carollo said police are investigating the vandalism.
