Above photo: The Espinoza Bernal family. Tal Cual.
Caracas — In a statement issued this Monday, April 28, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil condemned the separation of a 2-year-old Venezuelan child from her mother as an act of “extreme violence,” calling it “absolutely unacceptable and unthinkable in the 21st century.”
The statement emphasized that this incident reflects a broader pattern of migrant rights violations, directly contravening international frameworks such as the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Charter. “This represents yet another egregious case of family separation, forcibly removing a child from their emotional and biological bonds,” it declared.
The text further detailed that the girl’s father was detained and deported “without trial or legal process” to a detention facility in El Salvador under President Nayib Bukele’s administration, likening the act to “the death trains used to transport Jews to Nazi extermination camps during World War II.”
US accused of “human trafficking”
Venezuelan authorities escalated their criticism this Friday, accusing the United States of engaging in “human trafficking” through the alleged “theft of Venezuelan children.”
View this post on Instagram
The accusation stems from testimony by Yorely Bernal, a Venezuelan citizen who recently returned to the country via the Return to the Homeland repatriation program. Bernal recounted how her two-year-old daughter was forcibly taken from her without explanation, and she was pressured to board the flight to Venezuela alone.
US argument
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to justify the separation of the Venezuelan minor from her family on legal grounds, alleging that the child’s parents were linked to the now-defunct Tren de Aragua criminal gang, though no evidence was provided.
According to the US DHS, the separation was justified by the alleged criminal ties of the father, Maiker Espinoza Escalona, who US authorities claim was a “lieutenant” of the Aragua Train. Meanwhile, the mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte, was allegedly “in charge” of recruiting young women for the criminal organization. US authorities also noted that both parents had outstanding deportation orders.
Below is the full unofficial translation of the statement:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces, before the world, the kidnapping by US authorities of two-year-old Venezuelan girl Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, who was separated from her mother as she embarked on a repatriation flight to Venezuela. Like so many violations of the rights of our migrants and in violation of international standards, especially the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Charter of the United Nations, the US once again commits the extremely serious act of separating families and removing a minor from their emotional environment, particularly their biological mother. As an unacceptable corollary, we also denounce the detention and expulsion of Maiker Espinoza, the father of the girl, without due process or court action, to the concentration camp erected in El Salvador by Bukele’s regime—a modern echo of the death trains that transported Jews to Nazi extermination camps in Eastern Europe during World War II.
In this despicable practice, human beings are subjected to cruel and undignified treatment, families are torn apart, and Venezuelan citizens are sent to concentration camps in third countries run by complicit governments, violating basic principles of due process and the rule of law. The only “crime” our citizens are accused of—to the applause of Venezuela’s far-right factions, who revel in crimes against humanity—is being born in our homeland and being labeled as invented threats to US security.
Venezuela will resort to all legal, political, and diplomatic mechanisms to ensure the sacred integrity of our families is respected and international laws are upheld so that Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal is safely returned to her country and reunited with her mother. We demand her immediate return and the restoration of her basic rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child: “the right to life, survival, and development; to identity; to live in a family; to equality and non-discrimination; to education; to health; to recreation and leisure; and to protection from abuse, exploitation, and violence.”
Caracas, April 28, 2025