Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez (left) meets Gianluca Rampolla, the coordinator of the United Nations (UN), in Caracas on May 15, 2025. Photo: Telegram/@DrodriguezVen.
The Venezuelan government has thanked the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for its role in facilitating the return of Maikelys Espinoza, the two-year-old girl separated from her mother by the government of the US empire before being repatriated.
On Thursday, May 15, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez met with Gianluca Rampolla, the coordinator of the United Nations (UN), in Caracas to highlight the agency’s efforts.
“In a meeting with Ambassador Gianluca Rampolla, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Venezuela,” the vice president wrote on social media, “we conveyed President Nicolás Maduro’s gratitude for the efforts made by UNICEF for the successful rescue of the girl Maikelys Espinoza, who is now safe with her family.”
She also emphasized that Venezuela reaffirms “the request to continue working together to rescue our fellow citizens who are unjustly kidnapped in El Salvador, under the criminal government of Nayib Bukele.”
The baby girl arrived this Wednesday on a flight with 226 other migrants, dispatched from the state of Texas within the US colonial entity, and was received at Simón Bolívar International Airport by the first lady, Cilia Flores, and Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
Cabello later informed that “[the girl’s return] has been a daily battle, and today we have a great victory: Maikelys’ return to our homeland.”
President Maduro Brings 2-Year-Old Maikelys Back to Venezuela (+El Salvador)
Caracas has reported that the child’s father was deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, alongside more than 250 other Venezuelans, accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang without any evidence or trial.
To commemorate the girl’s return and the International Day of Families, a march was held in Caracas on Thursday, culminating at Miraflores Palace, where Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro addressed those in attendance.
(Telesur)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
