Venezuelan opposition lauds U.S. crackdown on gang, asks for protection of honest migrants

Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald on Mar 17, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González expressed support Monday for the crackdown by the United States and Chile on the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang, but asked both governments not to penalize the honest and hard-working Venezuelans seeking refuge in their countries.

“We urge the competent authorities of each country to take extreme precautions when administering justice, clearly distinguishing between criminals employed by the Maduro regime to commit crimes abroad and the vast majority of innocent migrants, thus avoiding an unjust criminalization of Venezuelan migrants in general,” the leaders of the Venezuelan opposition said in a joint statement.

Machado and González also asked both countries to provide sanctuary to Venezuelan migrants as a preliminary step towards their eventual return to their country, stressing that the vast majority of the Venezuelans in the U.S. and Chile are honest citizens who were forced to leave their homes by a criminal drug-trafficking regime led by strongman Nicolas Maduro.

They “cannot return to the country until he is removed from power,” the opposition leaders said.

González and Machado became the top leaders of the opposition in the months leading to last year’s presidential election, which the vast majority of Venezuelans and a large number of countries, including the United States, believed Maduro stole from González through fraud.

Their comments come two days after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation invoking wartime powers to expedite the deportation of Venezuelans citizens believed to be members of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang, in a process that denies them the right to defend themselves in court. Over the weekend the administration sent about 300 Venezuelans it claims belong to the gang to a prison in El Salvador.

The Trump proclamation argued that the powers he invoked are necessary because Maduro had launched an invasion of the United States using the prison-born gang.

In their statement, Machado and González emphasized that Maduro and his top lieutenants are the true bosses of Tren de Aragua and said the leadership of the regime and the gang members must be captured and prosecuted.

“We believe that the criminals and corrupt officials who have ruined Venezuela and committed crimes abroad must face justice, and we call on international institutions and all countries to exercise it with the utmost severity.”

_____