President Maduro demands end to persecution of Venezuelan migrants

Venezuela: President Maduro demands respect for national identity and an end to the persecution of Venezuelan migrants.
By Resumen Latinoamericano 

Published in TeleSUR and Resumen Latinoamericano, March 22, 2025. Translation: John Catalinotto

Maduro speaking on the U.S. government’s kidnapping of Venezuelan migrants, March 23, 2025. (Photo: Radio Havana Cuba)

On March 22, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro demanded respect for his country’s national identity and an end to the persecution of Venezuelan migrants, while denouncing arbitrary kidnapping to a high-security prison in El Salvador of more than 200 migrants unjustly deported by the U.S. regime.

During the farewell ceremony for the training ship AB “Simón Bolívar,” which set sail hours earlier to begin a new training voyage, Venezuela’s head of state said that “many young people believed in the American dream and went there in search of it, only to discover there was no such dream.”

Maduro denounced the U.S. reality: After seeking job opportunities and a better future, the migrants found themselves trapped in a system that persecutes them and subjects them to torture and kidnappings even though they have committed no crime.

He stressed that to migrate is no crime and that if someone does commit a crime, “they should have the right to a trial, the right to a defense and due process.”

Venezuela’s president held the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, responsible for the life and health of the Venezuelans the U.S. kidnapped and deported to the Terrorism Confinement Center. He demanded respect for their human rights.

“The time will come when we will rescue those kidnapped in Nazi concentration camps in El Salvador.” Maduro said, alluding to the aforementioned mega-prison.

He emphasized that this is an atrocious attack on Venezuelan identity, violating the rights of compatriots who emigrated after the sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the U.S. and other imperialist countries.

Maduro pointed out that behind this racist message of contempt, brandished by Donald Trump and Bukele, “the aim is to try to humiliate people of Venezuelan nationality. … We say to them: nobody can humiliate us; we are a decent people and a hard-working people.” 

He commented that many of these migrants had already asked to be included in the Plan Vuelta a la Patria (Return to the Fatherland Plan) to return to Venezuela:  “We are going to look for them, we are going to look for every last one of them, and we are going to reintegrate them into a Venezuela that deserves to grow and fully recover,” he said.

Maduro emphasized that the Bolivarian government is trying to reestablish repatriation flights from the U.S. and said that they will resume on Sunday, March 23.