Venezuela accused the United States on Monday of “kidnapping” 18 Venezuelan children after having separated them from their parents during the expulsions of people in an irregular situation in recent months.
Children are between 1 and 12 years old and it is difficult to determine since when they were separated from their parents, many of whom are already in Venezuela after being expelled from the United States, according to elements communicated by Jorge Rodriguez, the president of the National Venezuelan Assembly.
“We are here to denounce” that 18 children are “kidnapped in the United States of America,” said Rodriguez at a press conference. They were “separated from their mothers, their fathers, their family, their grandparents, taken to institutions where they should not be”.
He claims to have “frequent exchanges” with the administration of President Donald Trump to demand their return.
“We have always told them: + make us our boys and girls +,” he said. “Not only did they commit any crime, but their mothers, who are here for many of them, their fathers either, have not committed any crime to deserve this brutal punishment to be separated from their daughter, their son, their grandson or their granddaughter,” said Rodriguez.
Despite the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United States in 2019, the Trump administration managed to conclude an agreement with the government of Nicolas Maduro to expel hundreds of Venezuelans to their country.
In these flights, children arrived without their tutors, according to the Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello, responsible for the reception of expelled people.
