Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday that 324 Venezuelan migrants have been sent by the United States to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, a higher figure than previously given, but said also that neither Washington nor San Salvador has yet given him an official list.
US President Donald Trump invoked rarely used US wartime legislation to fly the Venezuelans to El Salvador on March 16, without the migrants being afforded any kind of court hearing.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said 238 Venezuelans were sent to his country after the United States accused them of being part of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
It is an "embarrassment that has been committed with the kidnapping and forced disappearance of 324 Venezuelan migrants who were taken to a Nazi concentration camp in El Salvador," Maduro said at a meeting in Caracas with foreign ministers from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) bloc.
Maduro did not explain where he got the figure from, and acknowledged that he does not yet have an official list.
"Officially no authority from either the United States or El Salvador has sent an official communication recognizing who was kidnapped," he said.
ALBA is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia, and several of the ministers attending the meeting backed Maduro.
"The kidnapping without jurisdiction or due process, without trial, defense or sanction by competent court and sending to third countries by the United States of Venezuelan migrants and any citizenship is an atrocious act and constitutes cruel inhuman and degrading treatment," said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
"The criminalization of migrants, their transfer to detention centers in third countries (...) is not something we can accept," added Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa.
Maduro is pushing for the group to be sent to Venezuela and has hired a law firm in El Salvador.
He also spoke with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guerres to ask for their protection.
Venezuela and the United States broke off diplomatic relations in 2019.
In January they had a rapprochement to agree on deportation flights that were later suspended when Trump revoked the license of the oil company Chevron to operate in the South American country.
The flights resumed a week ago, and in total Venezuela has received 743 deportees from the United States. Another 229 are expected to arrive on Sunday.
ba/pgf/val/st/mtp
US President Donald Trump invoked rarely used US wartime legislation to fly the Venezuelans to El Salvador on March 16, without the migrants being afforded any kind of court hearing.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said 238 Venezuelans were sent to his country after the United States accused them of being part of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
It is an "embarrassment that has been committed with the kidnapping and forced disappearance of 324 Venezuelan migrants who were taken to a Nazi concentration camp in El Salvador," Maduro said at a meeting in Caracas with foreign ministers from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) bloc.
Maduro did not explain where he got the figure from, and acknowledged that he does not yet have an official list.
"Officially no authority from either the United States or El Salvador has sent an official communication recognizing who was kidnapped," he said.
ALBA is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia, and several of the ministers attending the meeting backed Maduro.
"The kidnapping without jurisdiction or due process, without trial, defense or sanction by competent court and sending to third countries by the United States of Venezuelan migrants and any citizenship is an atrocious act and constitutes cruel inhuman and degrading treatment," said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
"The criminalization of migrants, their transfer to detention centers in third countries (...) is not something we can accept," added Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa.
Maduro is pushing for the group to be sent to Venezuela and has hired a law firm in El Salvador.
He also spoke with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guerres to ask for their protection.
Venezuela and the United States broke off diplomatic relations in 2019.
In January they had a rapprochement to agree on deportation flights that were later suspended when Trump revoked the license of the oil company Chevron to operate in the South American country.
The flights resumed a week ago, and in total Venezuela has received 743 deportees from the United States. Another 229 are expected to arrive on Sunday.
ba/pgf/val/st/mtp
