Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks at the official event for the departure of the Simón Bolívar Naval Training Ship on its training and diplomatic mission, in La Guaira, March 22, 2025. Photo: Presidential Press.
“Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, we say to you: you are responsible if something happens to one of those young people, you are responsible for the lives of all those young people, you must guarantee their health,” said the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in a strong statement to his Salvadoran counterpart, holding him responsible for the lives of the 238 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States and imprisoned in El Salvador.
The Venezuelan president criticized the harsh conditions suffered by the migrants, stressing that “they have not committed any crime either in El Salvador or in the United States.”
In this regard, he argued that “if someone has committed a crime, he should be judged by his jurisdiction, he should have the right to defense, due process, and all his human rights and procedural guarantees.”
President Maduro made these comments at the official event of the departure of the Simón Bolívar Naval Training Ship on its training and diplomatic mission in the Caribbean, from La Guaira Port on Saturday, March 22.
During his speech, the president recounted cases of migrants who were arrested from their workplaces and even their homes in the US, stressing that the US authorities kidnapped them.
He added that these young people worked as “hairdressers, musicians, artists, workers who went looking for the American dream and got American slavery.”
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He also referred to the meeting that he held with the parents and family members of these abducted migrants, at the Miraflores Palace, on Friday, March 21, who detailed how they sent money to their children and loved ones abroad.
“The family here has to send money; many wanted to return and went to ICE [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to join the waiting lists for the flights that we are sending as part of the Return to the Homeland Program,” he added.
He highlighted that “Venezuela is the only country in the world that has a Return to the Homeland Program and sends planes and brings back migrants with love, free of charge.”
The president condemned the repression and violence that Venezuelan migrants are suffering in the United States, who “are getting abducted, or the ICE officials take their address and at night raid their house, assault them, handcuff them, tie them up in front of their children.”
He condemned these actions, which he called an attack on the Venezuelan identity.
“The objective is to try to humiliate the Venezuelan nationality, to humiliate all Venezuelans. It is a racist message, a message of contempt for us,” he said.
“Nobody can humiliate us,” he emphasized. “We are a people of dignity, of honor, of values, we are a rebellious people, a decent, hard-working people who brought freedom and independence to a whole continent.”
(Prensa Presidencial) by Eduardo Hueck
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
