CARACAS: Hundreds of Venezuelans marched in Caracas Tuesday to demand the release of 238 compatriots the United States sent to a notoriously harsh prison in El Salvador, accused of being gang members.
Bearing photos of some of the detainees, the group denounced the “kidnapping” of their loved ones and clamored for them to be freed.
“My son has no criminal record, does not belong to any gang,“ Rena Jimenez, mother of one named Wilker Flores, told AFP at the march called by President Nicolas Maduro’s party.
“They are good boys who were unjustly taken to El Salvador. We are here asking for help to bring our children back,“ she said.
The United States last weekend flew alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to be imprisoned in El Salvador after US President Donald Trump invoked little-known wartime legislation to expel them.
The deportations took place despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsion order — apparently as planes carrying the detainees were already headed to San Salvador — raising questions over whether the Trump administration deliberately defied the court decision.
Trump has called for the judge who issued the order to be impeached, leading to a rare rebuke of the Republican president by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said 238 members of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, which Trump has designated a foreign terrorist organization, had arrived. Bukele shared a video of men in handcuffs and shackles being transferred from a plane to a heavily guarded convoy.
The president’s office also posted photos of prisoners’ heads being shaved.
The men were taken to the maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison Bukele had built to imprison gangsters on the edge of a jungle 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of the capital.
“We are not Tren de Aragua!” read banners held up by the protesters Tuesday.
Jimenez said she learned of her son’s transfer through photos she saw on social media.
“His head had already been shaved,“ she said. I identified him by his tattoos.”
Venezuela says it considers the transfer of its citizens to El Salvador a “crime against humanity” and Maduro has urged the UN to take steps to protect their rights.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday threatened new sanctions against Venezuela unless it agrees to accept “a consistent flow of deportation flights” from Washington.
Maduro, accused of stealing elections last July that saw him claim re-election to a third, six-year term, is not recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate president by the opposition and much of the rest of the world.
