Criminalization of compatriots by the United States separates the Venezuelan family

Published at: 07/05/2025 11:29 PM

On an aircraft belonging to the company CONVIASA, a group of compatriots from the United States arrived this Wednesday, May 07, at 07:00pm Venezuelan time, who made a stopover in Honduras to finally reach their homeland.

Among these citizens, the Ministry of Popular Power for Internal Relations, Justice and Peace reported in a press release, is Daniel Enrique Zacarías Mato, deprived of his liberty for eight months, simply because he is Venezuelan and has tattoos, a characteristic for which he was classified as a member of the extinct Aragua Train.

“I was a prisoner treated like a criminal, which I never was, being there in the United States I was imprisoned with several Venezuelans, accused of crimes that we did not commit,” he said.

During this time in detention, he shared with Maiker Espinoza Escalona, who was transferred without a deportation order to El Salvador and father of Maikelys Espinoza, a girl kidnapped by the US government.

“When I arrived in El Paso, Texas, he welcomed me because I was Venezuelan and helped me. They didn't send me, but they did, because my case was fought by a Federal Judge,” Daniel said while being treated by police officers.

He also recalled that when he arrived at the Detention Center, “we became friends, he told me his story when he crossed the border with his family, who, when arrested, were separated from his wife and daughter, leaving the girl in the custody of the United States government.”

He highlighted that his colleague, Maiker Espinoza, received the news that he was picking up his things because he was going to be deported with his family to Venezuela. “It was a lie and they took him to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) in El Salvador where they have kidnapped him for crimes that they invented.”

Zacarías Mato is one of the more than 3,000 compatriots who have returned to their country thanks to the Plan Back to the Fatherland, and who today are raising their voices to denounce the criminalization experienced by Venezuelans in the United States.