Latest news with #Caracas
Reuters
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
'I'm free now': Venezuelans held in El Salvador reunite with families
CARACAS/VALENCIA/CAPACHO, July 22 (Reuters) - A singer and a barber were among the former Venezuelan migrants who returned to their families on Tuesday, after spending months detained in a notorious prison in El Salvador before being sent back to Venezuela last week. Singer Arturo Suarez was greeted with hugs and tears in working-class El Valle, south of capital Caracas, by his sister, aunt and cousins. He later wiped away tears as he spoke to his wife and daughter, who live in Chile, via video call. "I'm free now, thank God, at last," said Suarez, who was arrested in February in North Carolina while filming a music video. He serenaded a crowd gathered in his family's living room. "I still can't believe it." The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador from the United States in March, after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without normal immigration procedures. The deportations drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and a legal battle with the Trump administration. Families and lawyers of many of the men have denied they have gang ties. His wife has said Suarez had gone to the U.S. to boost his emerging music career and that he denied being a member of Tren de Aragua. "I thought of my daughter, I thought of my wife, of my siblings, of my family, I asked for strength to not give up, to not allow myself to die," Suarez told journalists about his detention. "I didn't - because I'm tough, I'm a Venezuelan." Suarez and the other detainees deported to El Salvador from the U.S. were returned to Venezuela on Friday in a prisoner exchange. Since arriving, they have been undergoing medical checks and interviews with officials. Two brothers - Darwin Hernandez, a 30-year-old barber, and 23-year-old house painter Yeison Hernandez - were arrested alongside Suarez in February. They arrived home to their parents and other family members in central Valencia on Tuesday. "I asked God only for freedom, but more than anything that my family also be alive, to be able to leave and be with them like we are now," said Darwin Hernandez, a husband and a father to a six-year-old daughter. Suarez and Hernandez both said guards at the CECOT prison told detainees they would only leave dead, and Suarez said some detainees considered suicide. Their comments tallied with other allegations of abuse made by former prisoners in videos broadcast on state television, including during a program with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday night. Venezuela's attorney general said on Monday his office will investigate El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and other top officials over the alleged abuse. Bukele's office did not respond to requests for comment on the alleged torture, but he said on social media late on Monday that the Maduro government was "indignant" because they realized they no longer held "hostages from the most powerful country in the world," - a reference to ten Americans formerly held in Venezuela who were freed under the deal. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, State Department and White House did not immediately respond to comment requests. Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the abuse allegations. Eighty Venezuelan prisoners - including opposition politicians - held within Venezuela are also supposed to be released in the swap. Judicial NGO Foro Penal said on Monday it had verified 48 releases. The Venezuelan opposition has regularly critiqued the Maduro government for holding activists and others in abusive conditions within Venezuela. Andry Hernandez, a gay make-up artist who was detained at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, had an active asylum case when he was deported to CECOT. The U.S. alleged gang membership based on his tattoos. His parents were anxiously awaiting him in Capacho, near the Colombian border, on Tuesday. "All this time I've slept badly. My wife would serve me a plate of food and I would wonder 'is he eating?'" said Hernandez's father Felipe. Hernandez, who said he suffered sexual abuse at CECOT in a video broadcast on state television on Monday, was able to call his parents to say he was on his way. His mother, Alexi Romero, says she told him she is waiting with open arms.
Bloomberg
14 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Venezuela Oil Output Weathers Chevron Exit With Diluent Spree
Venezuela's oil output has been more resilient than expected since the US forced Chevron Corp. to wind down operations in the country, with a last-minute shopping spree for a key production supply helping cushion the blow. State-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA has maintained average output of about 1.1 million barrels a day in June and July, according to figures seen by Bloomberg. Chevron, which pumped nearly a quarter of Venezuela's barrels, lost key licenses to operate in the country near the end of May as the Trump administration sought to pressure President Nicolas Maduro.
Reuters
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Reuters
'I'm free now,' says Venezuelan singer held in El Salvador
CARACAS, July 22 (Reuters) - A Venezuelan singer who spent months in a notorious prison in El Salvador returned to his family in Caracas overnight, one of the first of more than 250 former prisoners to arrive home after they were sent back to Venezuela last week. Arturo Suarez was greeted with hugs and tears in working-class El Valle, south of the capital, by his sister, aunt and cousins. He later wiped away tears as he spoke to his wife and daughter, who live in Chile, via video call. "I'm free now, thank God, at last," said Suarez, who was arrested in February in North Carolina while filming a music video. He serenaded a crowd gathered in his family's living room. "I still can't believe it." The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador from the United States in March, after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without normal immigration procedures. The deportations drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and a legal battle with the Trump administration. Families and lawyers of many of the men have denied they have gang ties. His wife has said Suarez had gone to the U.S. to boost his emerging music career and that he denied being a member of Tren de Aragua. "I thought of my daughter, I thought of my wife, of my siblings, of my family, I asked for strength to not give up, to not allow myself to die," Suarez told journalists about his detention. "I didn't - because I'm tough, I'm a Venezuelan." Suarez and the other detainees deported to El Salvador from the U.S. were returned to Venezuela on Friday in a prisoner exchange. Since arriving they have been undergoing medical checks and interviews with officials. Suarez said the guards at the CECOT prison beat prisoners and told them they would only leave dead. Some detainees considered suicide, he added. His comments tallied with other allegations of abuse made by former prisoners in videos broadcast on state television, including during a program with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday night. Venezuela's attorney general said on Monday his office will investigate El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and other top officials over the alleged abuse. Bukele's office did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the allegations. The Venezuelan opposition has regularly critiqued the Maduro government for holding activists and others in abusive conditions within Venezuela.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Venezuela says migrants were tortured in Salvadoran prison
Venezuela announced a probe Monday into torture claims by 252 migrants the United States had sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison where they said they were beaten, sexually abused and fed rotten food. Attorney General Tarek William Saab presented photos and testimonies at a news conference in Caracas of some of the men, who said they had feared not making it out alive. Several had bruises on their bodies, marks of being shot with rubber bullets, and one had a split lip. Andry Hernandez Romero, a 32-year-old beautician among those sent to the notorious CECOT prison as part of US President Donald Trump's migrant crackdown, said he barely survived the ordeal. "We were going through torture, physical aggressions, psychological aggressions," he said in a video presented by Saab. "I was sexually abused." Saab said the prosecutor's office was interviewing the returned migrants. Many spoke of being held in "inhuman cells," deprived of sunlight and ventilation, and given rotten food and unsafe drinking water. The men had no access to lawyers or their relatives, and the last time many of them were seen was when President Nayib Bukele's government issued photos of them arriving at the prison shackled and with their heads shorn. - 'Mom, it's Mervin' - By Monday afternoon, the migrants had not yet been reunited with their families. Officials said they were undergoing medical exams, being issued with new Venezuelan ID cards, and interviewed by the prosecutor's office. Mercedes Yamarte, 46, told AFP she was preparing a welcome party for her 29-year-old son Mervin -- one of the men released from the prison Bukele built as part of his mass anti-gang crackdown. She had put up balloons, banners and prepared food at their home in a poor neighborhood of Maracaibo in northern Venezuela, but had no idea when to expect him. At lunchtime on Monday, she received a call, and heard the words: "Mom, it's Mervin." "I hadn't heard my son's voice in four months and seven days, listening to him was a joy, a joy I cannot describe," she told AFP. - Crimes against humanity - The men were accused in the United States of being gang members and flown in March to El Salvador, after Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to deport the men without court hearings. Their treatment elicited an international outcry. Saab said the Venezuelan investigation would target Bukele and other Salvadoran officials for alleged crimes against humanity. And he urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Human Rights Council to act. The men were freed last Friday and flown back home in what the Trump administration said was an exchange for 10 Americans or US residents and dozens of "political prisoners" held in Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro on his TV show Monday claimed Bukele had tried "last minute" to prevent the migrants from leaving. "You could not stop the first plane, but for the second plane he put some car on the runway... to provoke either an accident or prevent them from leaving," he said. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado labeled the process as an "exchange of prisoners of war" during a television interview Monday. Venezuela itself faces an investigation by the ICC in The Hague, with similar allegations of torturing prisoners and denying them access to legal representation. Hundreds of people are held for political reasons in Venezuela, according to rights group Foro Penal. Some 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and 200 injured in a crackdown on protests that broke out last July after Maduro claimed victory in elections he is widely accused of having stolen. On Sunday, Maduro's government insisted negotiations for the migrants' release were held "only with the United States of America" and not "the clown" Bukele. jt/nn/jgc/mtp
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Venezuelans deported from US demand return of their children
Protesters carried white balloons, photos of the young children and signs saying 'SOS, USA, release our children'. (AFP pic) CARACAS : Hundreds of people protested in Caracas Thursday demanding the return of at least 30 children who remain in the US after being separated from their Venezuelan parents during deportation. Mariale Castellano, deported on May 28, was among the protesters, pleading for the return of her nine-year-old daughter who is still in the US in the care of a foster family. 'I was four to five months waiting for deportation with her, but it didn't happen,' the 26-year-old mother said. At the protest, a woman read out a letter, later handed over to the UN office in Caracas, asking for 'urgent action in favor of the return' of children separated from their parents. Protesters carried white balloons, photos of the young children and signs saying 'SOS, USA, release our children'. On June 30, the Venezuelan government denounced the 'kidnapping' of 18 children under the age of 12. But the number of children stranded in the US has increased since then. Protesters at the march also called for the return of 252 Venezuelans deported on March 15 to El Salvador by US President Donald Trump, as part of his crackdown on undocumented people alleged to be violent criminals. 'Trump, we ask you from our hearts, return our sons, they are Venezuelans,' said Maria Venegas, a relative of one of the Venezuelan deportees being held at El Salvador's maximum security CECOT prison. Official figures show that between February and the first week of July, some 7,000 people – about 1,000 of them children – have been repatriated to Venezuela from the US and Mexico.
