A Venezuelan toddler separated from her parents after they crossed the US-Mexico border together a year ago and who remained in the US when they were deported arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday, where President Maduro thanked US President Trump for her return
read more
A Venezuelan toddler separated from her parents after they crossed the US-Mexico border together a year ago and who remained in the US when they were deported arrived in Venezuela on Wednesday, where President Nicolas Maduro thanked US President Donald Trump for her return.
Major figures in Venezuela’s socialist government, which is under extensive US sanctions, had repeatedly called for Maikelys Espinoza Bernal, aged two, to be returned to her mother, Yorely Bernal, who was deported to Venezuela in April.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Images on state television showed First Lady Cilia Flores holding the child, who arrived on a removals flights with other migrants, at the international airport near Caracas. The girl was later reunited with her mother and maternal grandmother at the presidential palace, in the company of Maduro.
“We must be thankful for all the efforts, for (Trump special envoy) Rich Grenell for his efforts…and thank Donald Trump too,” Maduro said, calling the child’s return “an act of justice.”
The baby’s father, Maiker Espinoza, 25, was sent to CECOT, the notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has sent at least 137 Venezuelans under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, in March.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in late April that Espinoza is a “lieutenant” in Tren De Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang. They said he oversees “homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house,” though they provided no evidence.
Espinoza’s family roundly denied the claim to Reuters.
“At no time has my son been involved with them,” his mother, Maria Escalona, told Reuters this month. “I