Venezuela condemns US migrant transfer as 'vulgar kidnapping'

BOGOTA, Colombia

Venezuela called the transfer of over 200 migrants from the US to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act invoked by President Donald Trump as a "vulgar kidnapping" and denounced the operation as having been carried out without guaranteeing their human rights or due process.

"Venezuelan men and women are being kidnapped without any trial or defense of their basic rights, the rights established by the United Nations," the country's National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said Monday in a press conference.

Rodriguez indicated he would request the Nicolas Maduro administration to "issue an advisory against travel to the US for Venezuelans," citing its lack of safety.

"None of the Venezuelans brought to El Salvador have committed crimes in El Salvador. Why are they there? Nor have they committed any crime, or at least no crime has been proven, in the United States of America, because they have been denied the right to due process," he further asserted

Rodriguez urged Venezuelan migrants to return.

"We will do everything necessary to bring our compatriots home, deploying all available aircraft to any part of the world."

The Trump administration utilized the wartime powers of the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport more than 238 alleged members of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, despite a court order prohibiting such action.

The Alien Enemies Act, a 227-year-old law, grants presidents the authority to order the detention and removal of citizens from countries the US believes it is at war with. Trump invoked this wartime authority by claiming the Tren de Aragua gang was invading the US.

Venezuela alleges that the purpose behind the transfer of Venezuelan migrants is to sell them into forced labor, which El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele intends to use to finance his prison system.

The migrants' arrival followed an agreement under which the Trump administration would pay the government of President Bukele $6 million for one year of services.

In 2023, Bukele inaugurated the Terrorism Confinement Center, a mega-prison constructed as part of his campaign against El Salvador’s gangs, which began in March 2022. The facility has a capacity of up to 40,000 inmates, with each cell designed to hold 65 to 70 prisoners.

Human rights organizations have accused authorities of rights violations in connection with these actions.