By Vivian Sequera
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Friday that no one among the hundreds of deportees to a Salvadoran prison, whom Washington accused of being members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, were related to the criminal organization.
Cabello cited a list of names disclosed in U.S. and from one of his own sources, speaking in a podcast shared on his Telegram channel.
U.S. President Donald Trump had on Saturday invoked an obscure wartime law to rapidly deport people who were, according to the White House, members of the Venezuelan gang which Washington has declared a terrorist group and alien enemy.
Despite a judge quickly blocking the measure, Trump’s administration deported 137 Venezuelans to El Salvador where they were detained in the country’s massive anti-terrorism prison, for a period of a year subject to renewal.
Meanwhile, families and lawyers have been seeking answers about relatives and clients whom they could no longer reach, and demanding their return to Venezuela.
“I believe with absolute responsibility that not a single one (of the names on the list) appears on the organizational chart of the now-extinct Tren de Aragua organization, not a single one,” Cabello said.
Venezuela says Tren de Aragua was effectively wiped out after a series of raids in 2023, and that the idea that it still exists is based on a claim from the country’s political opposition.
“It is a lie, a massive lie, and we have the means to prove it,” he added. “Now if the United States refuses to recognize this reality, that’s their prerogative.”
Trump’s administration is facing a March 25 deadline to respond to a judicial request for more details on the deportations.
Cabello said that of 920 migrants returned via five flights since February, only 16 had pending accounts in the judicial system and none were linked to the now-defunct Tren de Aragua.
Caracas and Washington are engaged in a diplomatic standoff over deportation flights, with Washington accusing Venezuela of lying about receiving deportees and the latter accusing the U.S. of blocking the flights, which it says are ready to resume.
(Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez)
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