SPAIN’S top female tennis player Garbiñe Muguruza has sent out an emotive message to her country of birth, Venezuela, amid the political crisis that has already forced over three million to flee.
Born in Caracas to a Venezuelan mother, Garbiñe, 25, is half-Spanish on her dad’s side and moved to Barcelona with her parents aged seven.
She now holds joint Spanish and Venezuelan nationality.
After Juan Guaidó overthrew dictator Nicolás Maduro following the latter’s disputed – and possibly rigged – elections, over 50 countries, including the whole of the European Union and also the USA, recognised Guaidó as the country’s new president, but Maduro is not prepared to take it lying down and has threatened military action.
Protests, police violence and general unrest has made Venezuela – a country plunged into extreme poverty during Maduro’s reign – unsafe, and around 5,000 nationals a day have become refugees, with the total exodus expected to exceed five million by the end of this year.
Garbiñe, who won Wimbledon in 2017, has tweeted a photograph of herself next to a home-made banner reading ‘SOS Venezuela’ and captioned it in Spanish and in English.
“We’re all with you, Venezuela. A picture is worth a thousand words,” she wrote.
She had the photograph taken outside the United Nations building.
Picture: Garbiñe Muguruza on Twitter (@Garbimuguruza)
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