Widespread reports in American and Venezuelan media, beginning with allegations in the Wall Street Journal on February 22 and recently reported by the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional on Sunday, suggest the socialist regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro has stopped accepting Venezuelans deported from the United States.
El Nacional, citing statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), reported that “in October, November, and December, the government returned between 6,000 and 7,000 people a month in repatriation flights” but returned only 2,727 people to Venezuela in January, and none in February. The Wall Street Journal similarly claimed, citing sources, that the Maduro regime had simply stopped taking back citizens.
Venezuela is home to the Western Hemisphere’s largest migrant crisis and one of the largest in the world, comparable to those of Syria and Ukraine. As of late 2023, monitor groups estimate that nearly eight million Venezuelans have fled socialism in the country, out of only 30.5 million citizens. The exodus escalated dramatically following the economic collapse and widespread state violence that began under Maduro in 2014 but increased following protest movements in 2016 and 2018.
In addition to refugees from socialism, law enforcement authorities in America have expressed concerns in the past month that many of those entering America illegally from Venezuela are gang members. A recent report in the New York Post suggested that the Tren de Aragua, one of Venezuela’s most powerful gangs, was active in New York City and had allegedly established an alliance with the Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13), a gang that has lost most of its power in his home country after a highly effective crackdown by the administration of President Nayib Bukele.
MS-13 gang member (File Photo: Jan Socho/CON, LatinContent/Getty Images)
In September, the Maduro regime “raided” the headquarters of the Tren de Aragua, the Tocorón Prison, a sprawling complex in which the gang had established night clubs, zoos, and luxury lodgings despite technically being inmates of the state system. As a result of the “raid,” the gang’s leader, Héctor “the Child” Guerrero, escaped; his whereabouts remain unknown at press time.
The Maduro regime has spent most of its time in power following the death of dictator Hugo Chávez denying that a migrant crisis was happening at all. In 2022, Maduro himself referred to the crisis as “invented” and called those fleeing the country “phantom migrants.” Venezuelan officials suddenly accepted the reality of the exodus in October, however, during negotiations with the administration of leftist President Joe Biden, announcing a new program to repatriate migrants called “Return to the Homeland.”
“Venezuela will deploy, through its ‘Return to the Homeland’ program, the necessary resources for the comprehensive care of our repatriated nationals,” the Foreign Ministry said in October, “in strict observance of the protection that the Constitution and the laws of the country provide for them.”
The negotiations that resulted in the “Return to the Homeland” program were part of a larger framework discussed during meetings in Barbados in late 2023, which featured Maduro officials, members of the establishment Venezuelan “opposition,” and the Biden administration. The Barbados talks resulted in a deal in which Maduro accepted vague commitments to hold a “free and fair” presidential election sometime in 2024 in exchange for extensive sanctions relief from Biden. Former President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Maduro that banned the sale of gasoline from state-owned oil company PDVSA and severely limited Venezuela’s gas, gold, and other resource industries in the global market. Those restrictions no longer exist; PDVSA openly sells its oil to America and its allies.
In a development superficially unrelated to the sanctions relief, Biden issued a presidential pardon in December to imprisoned Maduro “money man” Alex Saab, who had been arrested in 2020 on charges of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for the Maduro regime.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (R) welcomes Colombian businessman Alex Saab at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas on December 20, 2023. Saab, alleged to be a “front man” for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, arrived in the Caribbean country after being released from the United States, where he was on trial for money laundering (Photo by Federico Parra/AFP).
The regime broke the Barbados agreements almost immediately, banning the country’s most popular opposition politician María Corina Machado from running for president, launching a new wave of violent persecution of pro-democracy dissidents dubbed “Bolivarian Fury,” and declaring political dissidents “terrorists.” Maduro declared the Barbados deal “mortally wounded” in January, suggesting the plans for a presidential election were no longer on the table. Alex Saab appeared on Maduro’s podcast accusing the United States of trying to recruit him to orchestrate the collapse of the Venezuelan state, offering no evidence for his claim.
Supporters greet opposition presidential hopeful Maria Corina Machado as she arrives at a polling station to cast her ballot during the opposition primary election in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023 (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix).
In a move clearly recognizing her regime’s failure to adhere to the deal, Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez threatened to stop accepting deported Venezuelan nationals in January if the administration of President Joe Biden allowed the return of any sanctions on Venezuela.
“If they [the U.S. government] take the false step of intensifying the economic aggression against Venezuela, at the request of the extremist lackeys in the country, as of February 13, the repatriation flights of Venezuelan migrants would be immediately revoked,” Rodríguez said in January, “and any existing cooperation mechanism would be reviewed as a countermeasure against the deliberate attempt to strike at the Venezuelan oil and gas industry.”
Oil and gas sanctions remain invalidated, but the National Security Council (NSC) confirmed in late January that a sanctions waiver allowing deals with Venezuela’s state-owned gold mining company had expired.
“We have made clear that all who want to run for President should be allowed the opportunity, and are entitled to a level electoral playing field, to freedom of movement, and to assurances for their physical safety. It is up to Maduro and his representatives to correct course,” an NSC spokesperson told ABC News.
The date Rodríguez mentioned for the end of deportation flights aligns with reports in the past week in the Wall Street Journal and others claiming that the flights stopped in mid-February.
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