At Southern Cal businesses owned by folks of Venezuelan descent, the mood is celebrative

Maria Rondón, owner of Pepiteria +55 in Gardena, said the eatery specializing in Venezuelan food enjoyed a flurry of customers, most of them ordering up empanadas and celebrating Saturday’s news on the U.S. strike in Venezuela, she said.

“We are happy, what we dreamt and longed for, for so many years, has been the liberty of Venezuela,” Rondón said in Spanish.

Related: What we know about a US strike that captured Venezuela’s Maduro 

After months of escalating tensions in which...