Venezuela's Interior Minister: "The United States is Stealing Venezuelan Children"

This Friday, Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello denounced the United States for engaging in “human trafficking” by “stealing Venezuelan children.”

The accusation stems from claims by Yorelis Bernal, a woman who arrived on a recent repatriation flight, that her two-year-old son was “snatched” without explanation and that she was forced to board the plane returning to Venezuelan territory.

Este es justo el momento cuando Yorelis, quien llegó en el último Plan Vuelta a la Patria, le informó a su mamá que EEUU le robó a su bebé.
Esta es su historia.
Yorelis llegó a EEUU con su esposo Maikel y su bebé de 1 año, se entregaron a migración y estuvo un año… pic.twitter.com/4ryPXG3zId
— Madelein Garcia (@madeleintlSUR) April 25, 2025

“The US government is stealing Venezuelan children, and this is related to human trafficking. This must be condemned before the world,” Cabello said during his program Sin Truco ni Maña.

“We should not be surprised at anything about the US government because that’s a country that invades other nations, drops bombs, and assassinates presidents. It has no ethical values whatsoever,” he added.

Cabello asserted that human trafficking is a business orchestrated by coyote networks, and accused María Corina Machado’s mother of having “traded children in Venezuela.”

“This issue has many facets; it’s big business. In the 1970s and 1980s [during the Fourth Republic], María Corina Machado’s mother traded children in Venezuela… That family was the one that traded children. They claimed to run a foundation to ‘provide for children’ but sold them instead. This is documented in their foundation’s records. Anyone can investigate it,” he said, referring to an NGO managed by Machado’s mother at the time.

Over 3,000 Venezuelans rescued
Regarding the Return to the Homeland Plan, Cabello noted that 3,241 Venezuelans have returned this year on 16 government-funded flights since February.

“This process is free—the tickets are paid for by the Chavista government. It is part of President Nicolás Maduro’s Return to the Homeland program, active since 2018,” he stated.

“Venezuelans arriving [from the US] face persecution, abuse, imprisonment, family separation, and exploitation by the US government,” he claimed.

Plan against Venezuela
Cabello alleged that since 2011, far-right groups have promoted mass migration in order to destabilize Venezuela.

“They launched a ‘heroic campaign,’ calling those who left ‘heroes.’ They said, ‘Get out of Venezuela; there are no opportunities.’ It became an exodus narrative,” he stated.

He criticized opposition figures for now urging migrants to return as part of election strategies: “Do not be hypocrites—you pushed them to leave.”

316 Migrants Arrive in Venezuela From Mexico; No Members of Fictitious Tren De Aragua Gang

Bukele’s crime
Cabello accused El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele of “kidnapping” Venezuelan migrants without criminal records.

“This immoral man detains 85,000 people in El Salvador without trials, jails FMLN members, persecutes dissents and dismantles their party,” Cabello said.

(Últimas Noticias) by Aliarly Carrillo L.

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SF