Colombia's President Gustavo Petro speaks in Bogotá, Colombia, on May 1, 2024. Photo: Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro rejected the criminalization of the Venezuelan migrants and called on his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, to release migrants held in prisons in his country.
As the Colombian president explained on social media this Saturday, April 19, no democratic Latin American can accept as a principle of a republic that, due to the crimes of the extinct Aragua Train criminal gang, the entire Venezuelan people are criminalized outside their nation.
He noted that such behavior is a repetition of the actions of the fascists against whom US soldiers fought to the death, forgeting to mention that the Russian soldiers were the ones that actually defeated Nazi Germany.
El fascismo en Europa creó una idea criminal y la bañó de juricidad.
Dijo que se podĂa culpabilizar a un grupo social por el crimen de un individuo.
Por esa lĂnea la fantasmagorĂa delincuencial
"facha" ha construido la discriminaciĂłn y el encarcelamiento de los pueblos, y ha… https://t.co/oOp5auFTWL— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) April 19, 2025
The president’s statement came in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision to halt the expulsion of more Venezuelans detained in a detention center in North Texas until further notice, following appeals filed by an organization alleging that the Donald Trump administration is seeking to send more migrants to El Salvador. In his message, the South American leader openly repudiated the position taken by the Salvadoran president.
“No, Mr. Bukele, very bad. We do not accept, and the US justice system does not accept, the criminalization of the children of Venezuela, the motherland of BolĂvar,” he wrote.
Before concluding his comment, he made a demand of his counterpart from the Central American nation.
“Hand over to us the Colombians you have in your prisons. Free the Venezuelan people, because those people know how to shout for freedom. Migrants are not criminals; this is a reason for humanity,” he demanded.
On March 15, the US administration sent more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador for allegedly belonging to criminal gangs. Different organizations have unveiled that the majority of those deported do not have criminal records.
The Venezuelan government has denounced that its citizens are being illegally kidnapped by the US government in complicity with the Salvadorian government.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SA
