Far Right Tried to Extort Money From the Parents of a Venezuelan Girl Kidnapped by the U.S.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello (L) holds a migrant girl returned to Venezuela, May 2, 2025. X/ @yami2336
May 2, 2025 Hour: 12:48 pm
Venezuelan Interior Minister accused far-right opposition politicians of taking advantage of migrants.
On Friday, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello once again denounced human trafficking operations carried out by Venezuelan far-right activists, who act as coyotes in collusion with U.S. immigration officials.
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Cabello revealed that these human traffickers attempted to extort the parents of two-year-old Maikelys Espinoza Bernal, who remains kidnapped in the United States.
After welcoming 174 migrants who returned to Venezuela through the “Return to the Homeland” plan, the Interior Minister gave a press statement in which he said far-right politicians such as Carlos Vecchio, Juan Guaido, and Leopoldo Lopez use migrants as a commodity for profit.
Cabello stated that these opposition politicians extort migrants by threatening them that U.S. immigration authorities will be waiting for them unless they hand over large sums of money. He revealed that the extortionists in Panama demanded US$3,000 from the parents of Maikelys Espinoza Bernal, threatening that they would be detained in the U.S. if they did not hand over that amount.
When the Espinoza family arrived in the U.S., authorities separated them from their daughter. Her illegal detention was condemned by the Women’s International Democratic Federation, which demanded that the girl must be with her mother, who is currently in Venezuela. Her father is one of the 252 Venezuelan migrants deported by the U.S. to El Salvador.
Cabello added that coyotes do not care about the suffering of migrants or Venezuelan families. He claimed that the deported migrants have not committed any crimes, but U.S. authorities fabricate charges to justify the abuses committed against them.
Besides demanding respect for human rights, the Bolivarian minister criticized the disorganization of U.S. authorities in handling such a sensitive matter as deportations. In this regard, Cabello noted that the Trump administration initially announced it would send back 222 migrants, but in the end, only 174 Venezuelans were returned.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: Con el Mazo Dando
