By Pablo Meriguet on March 26, 2025
“Migration is not a crime, sanctioning a people is” reads a sign at a march on March 25, in Caracas. Photo via VP Venezuela
The Venezuelan government has initiated all possible steps (political and legal) to achieve the return of its citizens. A US judge claimed “Nazis got better treatment” than the Venezuelans accused of gang activity.
238 detained Venezuelan migrants have been transferred from detention in the US to an infamous mega-prison in El Salvador. The migrants are accused of belonging to the criminal gang called Tren de Aragua”.
Invoking an 18th-century law, Trump decided to transfer these Venezuelans to the Central American country, with the approval of its president, Nayib Bukele. The migrants were deported and incarcerated without being sentenced in the United States or El Salvador and without any concrete evidence of the alleged criminal activities of which they are accused.
Families left in the dark about their loved ones’ whereabouts
The hundreds of families of the migrants imprisoned in El Salvador have undergone significant distress in the past week. For several days, the families had no information about the whereabouts of their loved ones, as they appeared to not be in any US detention facility and many “disappeared” from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) locator. Then, through persistent inquiries, identifying loved ones in the videos released by Bukele and others showcasing the deportations, or through media reports, were families able to find out that their children had been part of the contingent of migrants who were taken to El Salvador, imprisoned in the Central American country’s penitentiary system, and condemned without trial for being part of an “enemy invading” gang.
Immediately, family members of the detainees in Venezuela and in the US took to the media to denounce that their relatives that were deported do not belong to the Tren de Aragua nor are they involved in criminal activity. Many have stated that the US immigration authorities detained and then deported them solely because they have tattoos.
Lawyers have told CNN that the story among the deported Venezuelan migrants is the same: “Venezuelan migrants detained in the US, suddenly disappearing from the US federal system, and leaving families and lawyers frantically searching for them.”
Many of the family members learned the news when CBS broadcast the Trump Administration’s list of those that were sent to the super-max prison in El Salvador. “Upon landing, the deported men were forcefully led off planes by heavily armed Salvadoran authorities. They were marched into armored vehicles, had their heads shaved, and were transferred into cells inside El Salvador’s notorious maximum security prison, known as CECOT,” informed CBS.
Testimonies of family members
Richard Alexander Duarte was one of those deported to Salvadoran soil. His father said, “the United States deceived my son, as he was told that he was going to be deported to Venezuela.” According to his father, Duarte received a permit to work in the United States after authorities checked that he had not committed any crimes in the past. His father says Richard was required to report periodically to the authorities as part of his work permit. During one of these appearances, he was arrested and detained in El Paso, Texas, and then sent to El Salvador.
Another of those sent to El Salvador was José Rubio, son of Milagros del Valle, who recounted the uncertainty his family members have experienced after the deportation, which they consider unjust: “I have not heard from my son since March 14. I ask the authorities to please help me get my son back. He is not a criminal. He has no criminal record. He worked two years ago in the United States as a construction worker.”
Carlos Cornejo, brother of Firtzgeralth Cornejo, says that his brother was detained because of his tattoos and was not able to go through the entire judicial process duly stipulated in US law because he was deported, “unjustly”.
“We had not heard from him since March 15, when he made the last call to us stating that he would be deported to Venezuela, which never happened. We waited for him, but he never arrived. We found out through social media and discovered that he had arrived in El Salvador.”
Venezuelan people reject treatment of migrants
For its part, the Chavista government called for a large mobilization of Venezuelan citizens last week on March 18, to protest the deportation of their compatriots to El Salvador. Diosdado Cabello, the Secretary of the Interior, called all those who wanted to oppose “the policies of the ultra-right” to march from Plaza Morelos to San Francisco in Caracas: “We invite everyone as a family. You go, claim for your children, demand that your children be returned to Venezuela. Let no one mistreat your children, let no one accuse your children without trial.”
In the mobilization, Venezuelans wrote the names of their detained compatriots on banners along with slogans like “Freedom and Justice.” “We demand justice for all Venezuelans who are unjustly detained in El Salvador,” stated a sign carried by a woman in the streets of Caracas, while another declared, “Migrating is not a crime. I want my son back now. Venezuelans have the right to freedom.”
Another mobilization was held on Tuesday March 25 calling for the release of the Venezuelan migrants.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Venezuelans have begun to collect signatures to demand the immediate release of those detained in El Salvador and their return to their country. Under the slogan “Migrating is not a crime”, the campaign launched by Venezuelan people and organization “Dignity Always” is trying to pressure the US and Salvadoran authorities to recover the deportees.
Venezuela denounces “kidnapping” of its citizens
In an official communiqué, the Venezuelan government rejected “categorically and forcefully the proclamation of the government of the United States, which infamously and unjustly criminalizes Venezuelan migration, an act that evokes the darkest episodes of history…from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.” In addition, the statement affirms that the 1798 Alien Enemy Act is anachronistic and violates current US laws, human rights, the United Nations charter, among others.
The Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, said that what has happened is a kidnapping of Venezuelans, as there are no legal reasons or evidence to deport them in such a way from the United States to El Salvador. “Bukele has to explain to the world why being a Venezuelan migrant is a crime… They must render information, but most importantly: they must return immediately. We are giving our signatures in support of the demand for the return of our migrants, in support of the efforts of the Government of President Nicolás Maduro to bring them quickly to their homeland,” said the Vice President during the signature collection.
For his part, Jorge Rodríguez, delegate of the peace dialogues between the government and the opposition said that Venezuela is ready to receive the migrants sent to El Salvador and that the Executive is making all the necessary arrangements for this to happen. He further stated that what is happening is a clear violation of the human rights of migrants and children who have been separated from their parents. “They were taken from their homes or their places of work or from public roads and they were even seized in the same emigration offices where they had attended to manifest their desire to return to Venezuela or to regularize their situation,” said Rodriguez.
In addition, the high official emphasized the situation of some Venezuelan women who have also been deported, “It is a vulgar kidnapping and they are subjecting innocent young women to slave labor. How is it possible that eight young Venezuelan women have been taken to El Salvador and are being held in a highly dangerous prison where there are only men?”
Resumption of flights of deportees to Caracas
Finally, the Venezuelan government has stated that it has hired “the best law firms in El Salvador” to obtain the release of its compatriots and to defend them in the Salvadoran penal system.
“Venezuela is ready, we have everything ready to resume flights to bring back all Venezuelans who are in the US, we are waiting for the necessary coordination to take place, warning while who is preventing it is the US State Department… We will not rest until we see them land at the Simon Bolivar International Airport,” said Rodriguez.
For the time being, the efforts of the Venezuelan government and the pressure on the Trump administration have allowed the resumption of flights of deportees from the United States to Venezuela. On March 24, a new flight took almost 200 deported Venezuelans to Caracas, which shows some negotiation between Washington and Caracas, although the fate of the Venezuelans held in Salvadoran jails is still unclear.
Nevertheless, it seems that the Trump administration will not give in; sources from the US Department of Homeland Security informed Univision that several Venezuelans allegedly linked to the Tren de Aragua will be sent to the US Naval Base in Cuba.
Given this reality, US Judge Patricia Millet said that the treatment being given to Venezuelans is worse than that given to the Nazis in World War II: “There were planeloads of people. There were no procedures in place to notify people. Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemy Act than has happened here.
Source: Peoples Dispatch