Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro has announced that his regime will send a plane to Mexico on Thursday to retrieve 300 Venezuelan migrants, most of them women and children, who he claims fled the United States fearing persecution.
Maduro’s move comes in response to the Trump administration’s intensified deportation policies, which have seen Venezuelan migrants deported to a mega prison in El Salvador under accusations of criminal ties. Washington claims many of the deportees are connected to the infamous Tren de Aragua gang, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.
“Next Thursday, a plane will be sent to Mexico to rescue migrants who escaped persecution and crossed the border into Mexico,” Maduro declared on national television Wednesday. “We are going to rescue about 300 migrants, most of them women and children.”
Maduro’s critics, however, see the move as a political maneuver, pointing out the Venezuelan government’s own notorious human rights violations. Still, the move may resonate with many Venezuelans who feel abandoned by the U.S. and the international community.
Over 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years, escaping violence, political persecution, and economic collapse they attribute to the regime. Around 700,000 have sought refuge in the United States, but many now fear deportation as the Trump administration tightens immigration policies.
The Trump administration’s recent crackdown on Venezuelan migrants has drawn sharp criticism from human rights activists and legal experts. Under new expedited deportation measures, Venezuelans suspected of gang affiliations are being sent to El Salvador without being given the right to a legal defense.
In the latest round of deportations, 17 Venezuelans were transferred to El Salvador on Sunday under accusations they had ties to Tren de Aragua and the Salvadoran gang MS-13. The State Department claims the group includes rapists and murderers, but critics argue that due process is being disregarded, leaving migrants vulnerable to abuse in one of the most violent countries in the region.
Trump officials claim that mass deportations are necessary to root out dangerous criminals who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. However, Maduro has accused Trump of using Venezuelan migrants as political scapegoats, going so far as to call El Salvador “a second Guantánamo” where deported Venezuelans face inhumane conditions.
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