Venezuela Slams US 'Kidnapping' as Toddler Returned in Deportation Flight
By Dan Gooding and Gabe Whisnant
Politics Reporter
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A2-year-old Venezuelan girl who had been separated from her parents due to deportation policies arrived Wednesday in Caracas, reuniting with her mother amid international controversy. Maikelys Espinoza returned aboard a flight carrying over 220 deported migrants. Venezuelan state television broadcast images of First Lady Cilia Flores holding the child at the airport before personally delivering her to her mother at the presidential palace, where President Nicolás Maduro was also present.
Venezuela's government has repeatedly condemned the separation as a "kidnapping," criticizing U.S. immigration enforcement. The U.S. justified the deportation by alleging that the girl's parents were linked to the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuela-based criminal gang recently designated a terrorist organization by President Donald Trump.
The child's mother was deported to Venezuela on April 25. Her father had been previously transferred to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March, as part of a sweeping Trump administration policy invoking an 18th-century wartime law to accelerate deportations. Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, including approximately 180 who were held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay for up to 16 days, have since been deported.
While the administration claims these individuals are affiliated with Tren de Aragua, it has provided limited public evidence supporting those claims.
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