Venezuelan women migrants, repatriated from the US through the Venezuelan government's Return to the Homeland Program, arrive in the country. Photo: Con El Mazo Dando.
Venezuelan Minister for the Interior, Citizen Security and Peace Diosdado Cabello criticized the “logistic disorder” of the United States government regarding the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants.
“We depend on what the US decides in the case of those who come from there. Why? Because nothing depends on us—the list, who are put on flights, the departures—absolutely none of that depends on us. What we do is we go and look for the Venezuelans, as promised by President Nicolás Maduro. What is true is that there is terrible disorder on the US side, terrible,” Cabello stated on Friday, March 28. He highlighted that 223 people were supposed to return to Venezuela on the Return to the Homeland flight that arrived early Friday morning, but only 178 people returned.
Cabello criticized the treatment meted out by the US authorities to Venezuelan migrants, who are separated from their families and subjected to humiliation.
“We are demanding the US send us families, not to separate them,” he stressed. “They had not returned women until now, in this latest flight, on which they sent 13 women. Their pretext was that women were from the gang Tren de Aragua—that is a lie.”
Comprehensive assistance to repatriated migrants
Minister Cabello highlighted that all migrants returning to the country through the Return to the Homeland Program receive comprehensive care to verify their health and family conditions and to see if they have any police record.
He emphasized that the Venezuelan government provides all Venezuelans with loving treatment that contrasts with what they received in the United States.
He reported that on the flight that arrived in Venezuela on Friday morning, there were some young people with serious injuries caused by aggressions of the security guards in the prisons where they were held or injuries they suffered in accidents which were not attended to in a timely manner. These people are receiving medical attention in Venezuela.
“It is dehumanizing, all this to try to demoralize us,” Cabello criticized. “It is obvious that they do not know us because the people of Venezuela, when they are mistreated, respond with dignity, strength, rebellion, even more fierceness.”
He also highlighted the effort made by the Venezuelan government to ensure the repatriation of all Venezuelans abroad. “We do not have the means to maintain the airplanes, we do not have the means to buy spare parts, and we are not allowed to land [in many countries] due to sanctions, and what Conviasa and [Transport] Minister Ramón Velásquez Araguayán are doing is an extraordinary logistical effort to bring back Venezuelans,” he said.
Cabello also praised the work carried out by the Venezuelan Red Cross and its president, Luis Farías, to attend to the migrants arriving in the country. “Earlier, the Red Cross used to be something else, but now I am pleasantly surprised with the new Venezuelan Red Cross,” the minister commented.
Another 178 Venezuelans Deported From US Arrive in Venezuela
Infamous Venezuelan influencer “Leíto oficial” among repatriates
Cabello reported that in the group of 178 people repatriated this Friday, there was an influencer known as “Leíto oficial,” infamous for producing videos that made people believe that all Venezuelans were criminals.
Cabello stated that Venezuelan authorities had to adopt measures to protect him during the flight since there were possibilities that he could be beaten up by the other repatriates, who “were very upset with him.”
“We had to put him in the last seat because the rest of the passengers were very upset by the presence of this character,” Cabello said. “Leíto dedicated himself to denigrating Venezuelans, adding to the US narrative on Venezuelans. This Leíto went out on his social media claiming that we are going to invade, steal, loot, and this has harmed our people and their reputation.”
El Salvador has not provided a list of migrants illegally imprisoned
On Wednesday, March 26, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro criticized the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, for not providing the list of Venezuelan migrants that he has kept illegally imprisoned in his high-security prison on allegations of “terrorism.”
He reported that a Salvadoran law firm, called Grupo Ortega, introduced a habeas corpus at the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador on behalf of the Venezuelan citizens who are illegally detained in Salvadoran territory to demand “the immediate release of the detained Venezuelan migrants or, failing that, the guarantee of a fair and transparent legal process that respects their rights and ensures their prompt repatriation.”
(Últimas Noticias) by Gustavo Rangel, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
