Family members of Venezuelan migrants illegally imprisoned in El Salvador, accompanied by Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, hold a press conference at Miraflores Palace, Caracas, March 20, 2025. Photo: Presidential Press.
The relatives of Venezuelan migrants illegally imprisoned in El Salvador met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who listened to the complaints of fathers, mothers, siblings and other family members of those arrested in the US and transferred to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador on false allegations.
“Today at the Miraflores Palace, the President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro Moros, accompanied by the First Lady of the Republic, Cilia Flores de Maduro, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, Minister for Territorial Socialism Héctor Rodríguez, and myself held a meeting with relatives of our brothers and sisters abducted in El Salvador,” National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez announced to the press on Thursday, March 20.
Rodríguez then introduced several relatives of the migrants and emphasized that “it is important for the people of Venezuela to hear from the relatives of our abducted brothers and sisters … the truth about these sisters, about these brothers who are going to be rescued by the force of truth, by the force of God and by the force of the people of Venezuela.”
“The US government deceived the migrants who were waiting for a flight to be repatriated, sending them instead to concentration camps in El Salvador. We will not rest until they are rescued. This country is waiting for them with open arms!” he added.
“We are going to move heaven and earth, we are going to talk to whoever we have to talk to,” he stressed. “We are going to do whatever we have to do to bring all Venezuelans from the United States of America, but first we will ensure that the 238 Venezuelans kidnapped in El Salvador return to the safety of their families in their homeland, in their territory, in the homeland that we all carry in our hearts.”
Jorge Rodríguez: Everyone’s profession was known
Rodríguez pointed out that all the migrants illegally sent to El Salvador had known professions in the United States, which exposes the falsity of the accusations that they are criminals.
He said many were detained at their workplaces, on roads, and even at immigration offices where they went to express their desire to be transferred to Venezuela.
However, they were illegally detained and sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
Women sent to men’s prison
Rodríguez also noted that eight Venezuelan women were sent to the men’s prison in El Salvador.
“How is it possible that Bukele accepts, allows and also charges money for taking abducted young people who have committed absolutely no crime, neither in El Salvador, nor in the United States of America, nor in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela?” he asked.
He called the situation “a vulgar abduction, and they are subjecting innocent young people to slave labor. How is it possible that eight young Venezuelan women have been sent to a highly dangerous prison where there are only men?”
He criticized the abduction and imprisonment of even a 20-year-old. “How is it possible that they have kidnapped a minor according to US standards? This boy just turned 20, and in the United States the age of adulthood is 21 years. How is it possible that they sent young men to El Salvador and left their wives and children who at this moment have no idea what they can do?”
US State Department blocking repatriation
Rodríguez dismissed the US State Department narrative that claims Venezuela does not want to repatriate Venezuelans.
“Who is preventing those flights from taking place?” he asked. “It is the State Department of the government of the United States. We repeat, we are ready to take whoever we have to take from the United States, at the frequency that is established. If it were up to us, we would bring them all to us. If it were up to us, we would not leave a single Venezuelan to be mistreated in the United States.”
“We will not rest, and I am referring to all the people of Venezuela, to President Nicolás Maduro, to the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, to the National Assembly, and above all to the mothers and fathers of our children, we will not rest until we see them landing at the Simón Bolívar Airport in Maiquetía, here in their homeland, in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We will not rest and we will achieve it.”
Family members of migrants decry atrocities
The relatives of the Venezuelan migrants also made statements at the end of the meeting. They specified that none of their children detained in El Salvador has committed any crime.
Jepzy Arteaga, who was introduced by Rodríguez as “the mother of one of our kidnapped brothers,” said that what happened to her son is an atrocity.
“We came today to condemn the atrocity that is being perpetrated against our children, since none of them has committed a crime, all of them are innocent, not because we say so, but because it has been demonstrated,” she said.
She added that rather those who kidnapped them “are committing the crime against our children … We ask for help, everyone’s help with signatures, we will take to the streets if necessary, but we want our children back. Please, we need the help of all of you.”
Osvaldo Moreno, father of another kidnapped Venezuelan, said, “I have come to say to the world, to the country, that we must create awareness that what they are doing to our children is a total injustice, they are destroying our lives, our hearts.”
“Here there are broken parents, broken families, innocent children who are in that maximum security prison next to criminals, simply because of our nationality, for being Venezuelan,” he added. “May this demonic duo of Trump and Bukele fall! Open your eyes, Venezuelans, today it is us, but we all run this risk simply because we are Venezuelan. Migration is not a crime.”
“Our children have not committed any crime, and it has already been verified,” he continued. “All the people who are in that prison are innocent. Their only crime for this demonic duo is to be Venezuelan. Let us defend our nationality before the world, and we urge the international human rights organizations to raise their voices against this atrocity.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Aura Torrealba
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
