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Tag: Venezuela

  • First group of Venezuelans with U.S. sponsors arrive under new immigration program

    First group of Venezuelans with U.S. sponsors arrive under new immigration program

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    The first group of Venezuelan migrants sponsored by U.S.-based individuals under a new Biden administration policy designed to deter illegal border crossings arrived in the U.S. over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.

    Four Venezuelans approved to come to the U.S. under the private sponsorship program arrived Saturday on flights originating from Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, DHS officials said. The arrivals show the sponsorship process has been operationalized rapidly since the U.S. government began accepting applications from prospective sponsors on Tuesday.

    Hundreds of additional Venezuelans have also been approved to book their travel to the U.S., where they will be granted humanitarian parole, a temporary quasi-status that will allow them to work and live in the U.S. legally for at least two years, according to DHS officials.

    Venezuela migrant crisis
    A group of Venezuelan migrants called “walkers” walk on the highway between San Cristobal and the Venezuela border city of San Antonio del Tachira on Sept. 24, 2022, in order to cross the border into Colombia and continue their journey to the United States.

    YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images


    Modeled after a similar Biden administration program that has allowed tens of thousands of Ukrainians to come to the U.S. since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the sponsorship process for Venezuelan migrants was announced last week as part of a strategy to discourage Venezuelans from crossing the U.S. southern border illegally.

    More than 187,000 Venezuelans crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without legal permission in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, a record that made Venezuela the fifth-largest source of unauthorized migration to the U.S. during that 12-month span, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics show.  

    The arrival of tens of thousands of migrants from Venezuela to the U.S. border over the past year is part of a mass exodus of Venezuelans fleeing their homeland’s economic collapse and political turmoil. More than seven million people have left Venezuela, the largest refugee crisis ever recorded in the Americas, according to the United Nations.

    To deter further arrivals to the U.S. border, the Biden administration on Oct. 12 said it had convinced Mexico to accept the return of migrants from Venezuela under Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that allows immigration agents to quickly expel migrants on public health grounds, without allowing them to request asylum.

    The large-scale expulsions of Venezuelans to Mexico are a stark departure from the fortunes of Venezuelan migrants who reached the U.S. before the policy took effect. Prior to the announcement, most Venezuelan migrants were released into the U.S. and allowed to seek asylum, since Venezuela’s repressive government has refused to accept the return of its citizens.

    The Biden administration simultaneously announced the sponsorship process on Oct. 12, saying it was committed to allowing up to 24,000 Venezuelans to enter the U.S. legally at airports if U.S.-based individuals agreed to financially sponsor their temporary resettlement.

    To discourage Venezuelans from continuing to journey to the U.S., the Biden administration said those who entered the U.S., Mexico or Panama illegally after the policy’s announcement would be rendered ineligible for the sponsorship program.

    Venezuelans’ trek to the U.S. often includes a days-long journey on foot across Panama’s notorious Darién Gap, a jungle connecting the country with Colombia that more than 150,000 migrants — 107,000 of them from Venezuela — have traversed this year, according to Panamanian government statistics.

    On Friday, Biden administration officials said they had received evidence that their strategy was working, including reports that Venezuelans were stopping in third countries to reassess their journeys, or returning to Venezuela or other nations they had left.

    An average of 154 Venezuelans entered U.S. border custody daily this week, an 86% drop from the 1,131 average the week before the Biden administration unveiled the new policies for Venezuelans, according to government data provided by the officials.

    While parole will allow Venezuelans with U.S. sponsors to work and live in the U.S. without fear of deportation, it will not provide them permanent legal status. To secure permanent U.S. residency, Venezuelans would need to apply for — and be granted — an immigration benefit like asylum.

    Camilo Montoya-Galvez


    Camilo Montoya-Galvez

    Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.

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  • NYC Opens Emergency Center For Influx Of Bused Migrants

    NYC Opens Emergency Center For Influx Of Bused Migrants

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    NEW YORK (AP) — A complex of giant tents built on an island opened Wednesday as New York City’s latest temporary shelter for an influx of international migrants being bused into the city by southern border states.

    The humanitarian relief center on Randall’s Island is intended to be a temporary waystation for single, adult men — many from Venezuela — who have been arriving several times per week on buses chartered predominantly from Texas.

    Spartan and utilitarian, the tents include cots for up to 500 people, laundry facilities, a dining hall and phones for residents to make international calls.

    The city’s plan is to bring single men to the facility after they come into the main Manhattan bus terminal and to house them there for a period of days while determining next steps, officials said. The first arrivals were brought to the center on Wednesday.

    “We needed a different type of operation that gave us the time and space to welcome people, provide them a warm meal, shower, a place to sleep, to understand their medical needs, to really then work with them to figure out what their next step is going to be,” said Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol.

    The white, plastic-walled tents also include a space where migrants can meet with case workers to determine their next steps, as well as a recreational room with televisions, video games and board games. They are heated, since overnight autumn temperatures can fall into the 40s and 30s. In the sleeping area, row upon row of green cots stretch out, each one with a pillow, some sheets and a blanket, and some towels. The city said it will be able to double the sleeping capacity of the tents, if needed.

    Similar types of tents have been used as temporary shelters in other places, like the southern U.S. border. In recent years, both the Trump and Biden administrations have come under criticism for conditions in some tents, including overcrowding.

    In recent months, New York City has seen an unexpected increase in migrants seeking asylum in the United States who have been sent to the city from other states including Texas and Arizona. The influx has put a strain on the city’s shelter system, leading officials to look for other places to house people and propose the temporary tent facilities. Migrant families with children are being housed in a hotel.

    New York City’s homeless shelter system is now bursting with more than 63,300 residents. While there are fewer families in the shelters now than there were in the years before the pandemic, the number of single men has soared since the spring, largely because of the influx of migrants. There were more than 20,000 single adults in the shelter system Monday, up 23% from the nightly average in July.

    Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency earlier this month, calling the increased demand being put on the city “not sustainable.”

    The tents were initially planned for a far-off corner of the Bronx, but were moved after concerns about flooding and criticism from immigrant advocates over the remote location. Iscol said the Randall’s Island location was safe from flooding.

    Advocates remain concerned even with the new location, questioning what conditions migrants will be kept in, and whether the support they get will be adequate.

    Kathryn Kliff, an attorney with The Legal Aid Society, said there were questions about what kind of oversight would be maintained at the center, which is not part of the city’s homeless shelter system and so does not fall under the same court-ordered oversight some of the shelters do.

    And there were still concerns about why migrants were in tents at all, instead of buildings like hotels.

    Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement that opening the tent center was “a stain on our city’s rich history of welcoming immigrants and morally reprehensible. … To continue ignoring the calls from advocates and other city officials to utilize alternative and more appropriate housing options, and instead begin implementing this dangerous plan, Mayor Adams has compromised New York City’s status as a beacon of hope.”

    Randall’s Island is located in the waters between the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens. Five bridges connect it to the three boroughs, and the city’s subway system is a bus ride or walk away.

    It’s already put to a variety of uses — there are numerous athletic fields, as well as Icahn Stadium, a track and field facility. There’s also a psychiatric hospital and a fire academy for the Fire Department of New York.

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  • US to begin accepting Venezuelan claims under new migration plan

    US to begin accepting Venezuelan claims under new migration plan

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    United States immigration officials are set to begin accepting applications for a new parole programme for Venezuelan asylum seekers, in a plan that will see most Venezuelans trying to enter the US through its southern border expelled back to Mexico.

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday published a Federal Register notice (PDF) announcing the official start of the programme, which was announced last week, that will allow 24,000 Venezuelans to come into the US by air.

    The plan, which is aimed at addressing the growing number of Venezuelans who have been arriving at the US-Mexico border seeking asylum, also includes the expansion of a border expulsion policy known as Title 42.

    Up until now, the pandemic-era rule – which allows US authorities to quickly send most migrants back to Mexico without a chance to file a petition – had largely been applied to asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

    Due to strained relations with the Venezuelan government, the US had been unable to expel the country’s citizens. It has instead been allowing them to file for asylum and enter the US to pursue their cases.

    Migrants, mostly from Venezuela, arriving at a camp where Mexican authorities will arrange permits for their continued travel north, in San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca [Marco Ugarte/AP Photo]

    But now, under the new agreement, Mexico has agreed to take in Venezuelans.

    The development comes as the administration of US President Joe Biden has struggled to address the record-high numbers of migrants and asylum seekers arriving at its southern border with Mexico.

    With three weeks until critical midterm elections that will determine control of the US Congress, Biden’s Republican rivals have seized on the issue and accused his administration of mishandling the situation at the border.

    US and international rights groups have slammed the new border policy for Venezuelans.

    “While we welcome steps to provide safe processing for some Venezuelans, the creation of safe pathways should never be wielded to deny other people seeking protection access to asylum,” dozens of human rights organisations wrote in a joint letter last week addressed to DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

    “We are also troubled that the announcement refers to attempted entry at the southern border by Venezuelans as ‘illegal.’ Seeking asylum is legal under both US and international law,” the letter reads.

    Migration advocates also argued that the 24,000 cap on Venezuelans who will be allowed into the US is a negligible number that does not address the pressure at the border.

    More than 155,000 Venezuelans have been stopped at the US-Mexico border as of the end of August, DHS records show, in a stark uptick from last year when more than 50,000 were apprehended. In August alone, more than 25,000 Venezuelans crossed the border from Mexico, according to the department.

    “Personally, it’s hard not to see this as a massive stick and a tiny carrot,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, said on Twitter.

    “DHS says 33,000 Venezuelans entered in September and that 3,000 people a day (“mostly Venezuelans”) are crossing the Darien Gap into Panama on their way north. So a cap of 24,000 is, to be blunt, crumbs.”

    Citing an unnamed Mexican official, Mexico’s migration agency said on Monday that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had asked the US to take in one Venezuelan asylum seeker for each person expelled to Mexico.

    “That way, if the Biden administration takes in 24,000 Venezuelans, Mexico will not accept more of 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the United States,” the agency said in a statement.

    To be eligible for the programme, DHS said applicants must have a sponsor in the US, pass a security check, and fly at their own expense to an airport in the US. Those who are accepted will be able to live and work in the US legally.

    DHS has said that the plan is modelled after “Uniting for Ukraine”, a programme advanced by the Biden administration that has so far allowed thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion to come to live and work in the US if they are able to secure a financial sponsor.

    That immigration scheme is capped at 100,000 Ukrainians.

    At the same time, more than 6.8 million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2014, when the economy went into free fall. Most have fled to Latin American and Caribbean countries, but in recent months, many have been streaming north towards the US.

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  • Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants

    Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

    Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook.

    Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border.

    The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

    Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February.

    Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S.

    The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds.

    “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time.

    Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels.

    “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.

    The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S.

    Why the turnaround?

    For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers.

    Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere.

    After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S.

    Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings.

    But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials.

    A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

    The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year.

    By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage.

    So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42.

    It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.

    All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.”

    Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico.

    The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S.

    “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.”

    A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless.

    “People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here,” said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.

    00:00

    <p>AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on Biden Immigration</p>

    ___

    Long reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of immigration at https://apnews.com/hub/immigration

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  • Venezuelan migrants in shock and limbo after new US immigration plan | CNN

    Venezuelan migrants in shock and limbo after new US immigration plan | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    “The news hit me like a bucket of cold water,” says Alejaidys Morey, a 30-year-old Venezuelan woman, who until this week was planning to start traveling towards the United States.

    On Wednesday, the US announced that it is expanding Title 42 — a pandemic-era provision that allows migration officials to expel illegal migrants to Mexico on public health grounds — and unveiled a new program to allow some Venezuelan migrants to apply to arrive at US ports of entry by air with a cap of 24,000.

    Both plans are designed to dissuade Venezuelans like Morey from attempting to enter illegally and dangerously overland through the US-Mexico border.

    But many migrants who are already en route tell CNN that the Biden administration’s decision leaves them in agonizing limbo, after having already given up everything to begin the trek northward.

    They also point out that the new airport entry program favors the wealthy and well-connected — in other words, Venezuelans who can afford to fly northward in the comfort of an airplane.

    The Venezuelan migration crisis is more acute than ever. More than seven million Venezuelans now live abroad, according to new figures released this month by the United Nations, fleeing a humanitarian crisis in their home country.

    Most live in other South American countries – there are more than two million in Colombia alone — but in recent months a growing number have started to head north to the US through Central America and Mexico, as living conditions deteriorate amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a global food crisis.

    As a result, the number of Venezuelans apprehended at the US southern border is ballooning. Up to 180,000 Venezuelans have crossed the border over the past year, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

    Panama and Mexico form a geographical passageway for overland travelers coming from South America. Under the new US migration provision, any northbound migrant entering Panama or Mexico illegally will be ineligible from the program.

    The journey that Morey, her husband Rodolfo and their three children planned would have been just that. They aimed to travel first to the town of Necocli in Colombia, and then hike into Panama via the Darien Gap, a 100-kilometer stretch of jungle that is impassable by road.

    Despite the myriad dangers, 150,000 migrants have crossed on foot so far this year, according to Panamanian authorities.

    Morey, who is currently in Colombia, says a return to Venezuela is impossible. In 2018 her family sold their home in Santa Teresa del Tuy, an impoverished town some 30 kilometers southeast of Caracas, for US$1500 to pay for the journey to Colombia.

    Now, she feels she’s been thrown into limbo. Like so many others, she cannot afford to pay for a transcontinental flight — much less for her entire family.

    “Under these circumstances I have nowhere to go… I am scared: what can I do?” Morey told CNN.

    Her situation is the norm for most of the migrants who are currently traveling north.

    “After so much pain, so many obstacles we had to overcome, now we’re stuck. We are in Necocli and have nowhere to go…” a Venezuelan migrant who asked to be identified only as José told CNN.

    Up to 10,000 migrants are waiting in the town to cross the bay to the Darien Gap, according to local authorities, but some are now reconsidering their next move.

    “I’m in pain, I don’t know what to do now,” says Ender Dairen, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who was planning to join a group travelling north from Ecuador. But his plans changed after speaking with other migrants online.

    “A couple friends are thinking of just settling down wherever they got to, somewhere between Costa Rica and Nicaragua,” he told CNN. “Every person you speak with says the same thing: the whole route collapsed; we can no longer travel.”

    Yadimar, a migrant from Venezuela who was sent to Mexico under Title 42.

    In a call with reporters on Thursday, senior Homeland Security official Blas Nuñez-Neto said the goal is to reduce the number of migrants approaching the US southern border illegally, and at the same time to create a legal pathway for those eligible.

    But the plan drew rare criticism from members of the Venezuelan opposition, who are generally aligned with Washington in their struggle against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro.

    “The US Government announced a cruel migratory policy, that makes the situation of thousands of Venezuelans more painful,” tweeted Henrique Capriles, a two-time presidential candidate and one of the few anti-Maduro leaders still living in Caracas.

    Carlos Vecchio, the official representative of the Venezuelan opposition in Washington, also tweeted that the plan “insufficient for the magnitude” of Venezuela’s migration crisis.

    “We recognize @POTUS’ efforts to seek alternatives to the migration crisis through Humanitarian Parole, for orderly and safe migration for Venezuelans,” he said.

    “But the 24,000 visas announced are insufficient for the magnitude of the problem. A reconsideration is necessary in this regard.”

    The Venezuelan government has not commented on the new US policy.

    But humanitarian organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF), have echoed others’ criticism that 24,000 legal permits are not enough — and insist that expulsion of others to Mexico under Title 42 should not be permitted.

    “We are shocked by the Biden administration’s decision to start expelling Venezuelans under Title 42, a cruel and inhumane policy that has no basis in safeguarding public health that should have been ended long ago,” said Avril Benoit, Executive director at MSF in a statement.

    “While we welcome the rollout of a special humanitarian parole program for Venezuelans, ensuring safe pathways into the US should be the norm and not the exception.”

    Rights activists argue that asylum seekers should have a chance to present their cases in the US before being turned back.

    Still, some migrants say they see a glimmer of hope in the Biden administration’s new stance.

    Oscar Chacin, 44, a boxing instructor who had considered the idea of traveling to the US via Central America for weeks, told CNN that he now sees a legal pathway to migrate.

    “For me, it’s actually better. This will make things worse for so many people, but for me it’s good,” he said. “I have relatives in the US, some friends and some former boxing students, some of them will be able to sponsor me and my family.”

    His son, Oscar Alexander, is already in Mexico and entered before the new US immigration rules were unveiled.

    “He will stay there, now. He’s already looking for a job, and we will present the documentation as soon as we find the sponsor,” Chacin said.

    “Then we will wait for the paperwork. Maybe one, maybe two years, but we will make it, I’m sure!”

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  • US migrant policy ‘bucket of cold water’ to some Venezuelans

    US migrant policy ‘bucket of cold water’ to some Venezuelans

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    NECOCLI, Colombia (AP) — Venezuelan Gilbert Fernández still plans to cross the dangerous Darien jungle into Panama and head toward the United States over land, despite a U.S. announcement that it will grant conditional humanitarian permits only to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants arriving by air.

    “The news hit us like a bucket of cold water,” Fernández said Thursday, a day after the announcement, which also stated that Venezuelans arriving by land at the Mexico-U.S. border would be returned to Mexico.

    Fernández spoke to The Associated Press on a beach in Necocli, a Colombian town where about 9,000 people, mostly Venezuelans, waited to board a boat to take them to the entrance of the Darien Gap connecting the South American country to Panama. From there, migrants head by land up Central America through Mexico toward the U.S.

    Some on the Colombian beach said they would seek other routes into the United States or give up the voyage after hearing the news. Critics noted that the announced number of humanitarian visas is just a fraction of the number of Venezuelans seeking to enter the United States.

    But for Fernández it was too late to turn back. He said he sold his car and his land in Venezuela to finance the trip with his 18-year-old son and his friends, and he no longer has money for a plane ticket to the U.S.

    “Those of us who have already started, how are we going to do that?” he wondered. “We are already involved in this.”

    The U.S. and Mexico said Wednesday that the Biden administration agreed to accept up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants at U.S. airports while Mexico agreed to take back Venezuelans who come to the U.S. over land.

    Venezuelans who walk or swim across the border will be immediately returned to Mexico under a pandemic rule known as Title 42 authority, which suspends rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

    The U.S. offer to the Venezuelans is modeled on a similar program for Ukrainians who fled Russia’s invasion.

    The moves are a response to a dramatic increase in migration from Venezuela, which surpassed Guatemala and Honduras in August to become the second largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexico.

    So far in 2022, more than 151,000 people have crossed into Panama through the jungle, the majority — 107,600 — Venezuelans. That already exceeds the 133,000 people who crossed in the previous year, according to official Panamanian figures. The trip through the inhospitable jungle is fraught with dangers, including thieves, human traffickers and the possibility of sexual assault. Armed groups operate in the region.

    Arrests of Venezuelans at the U.S. border also have increased. Authorities detained Venezuelans 25,349 times in August, making them the second most detained nationality at the border, after Mexicans.

    For some, the offer of 24,000 humanitarian visas is not enough given the dimensions of Venezuela’s migration situation, and many consider the conditions on those visas too difficult.

    María Clara Robayo, an investigator for the Venezuelan Observatory at Colombia’s Del Rosario University, said the flow of migrants through the Darien Gap might be reduced a bit but won’t stop.

    “People will continue exposing themselves to precarious situations” crossing the jungle, she said.

    Jeremy Villegas arrived in Necocli in a group of 30 people, most of whom are turning back or looking for other routes. He said he is still undecided and is waiting to hear from people who are farther along the route to know if it is worth the risk.

    Cristian Casamayor said he has decided to stop his journey through the Darien after hearing of the new U.S. policy.

    “I stopped out of awareness and being smart … they mark your passport and you can no longer enter the United States,” he said, adding that he has not decided where he will go now. All he knows is that he will not return to Venezuela.

    Mario Ricardo Camejo, a member of the nonprofit Colombian-Venezuelan foundation Fundacolven, said that while they appreciate any help and humanitarian visas from countries like the U.S., they worry the help comes with conditions that make it difficult on the poorest migrants. For example, having to arrive by plane and having a financial sponsor.

    “Automatically, a filter is created that ensures the help does not reach the people who need it most,” Camejo said.

    Of the more than 7.1 million Venezuelans who have left their country due to the social and economic crisis, at least 4.3 million have difficulties accessing food, housing and formal employment, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

    Venezuelans back in that country’s capital agreed the new rules will hurt.

    “The people who leave by land have no money, no visa, no family there” in the United States, José Santana said in Caracas’ central plaza. “It is useless for them to say that they are going to let many enter by plane.”

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  • US to take in some Venezuelans but will send most back to Mexico

    US to take in some Venezuelans but will send most back to Mexico

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    The United States and Mexico have announced a joint migration plan that will see most Venezuelan asylum seekers trying to enter the US through its southern border sent back to Mexico while granting access to the US to thousands of others who come by air.

    The effort, announced late on Wednesday, aims to address the growing number of Venezuelans arriving at the US-Mexico border.

    Under the new programme, which came into effect immediately, up to 24,000 Venezuelans will be allowed to enter the US by air, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said. Others who try to enter the US through the border without documentation will be returned to Mexico.

    “These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

    “Those who attempt to cross the southern border of the United States illegally will be returned to Mexico and will be ineligible for this process in the future,” he said.

    President Joe Biden’s administration has struggled to cope with record migrant and asylum seeker arrivals at the southern US border as more people come from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.

    Biden’s Republican adversaries, who are seeking to gain control of Congress in the November 8 midterm elections, have criticised what they view as his failure to secure the border.

    Migrants from Venezuela on their way to the US-Mexico border wait to board buses in Guatemala City [File: Luis Echeverria/Reuters]

    The expulsions of Venezuelans will be carried out under Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allows US border officials to swiftly send asylum seekers to Mexico without the chance to submit a claim for protection.

    Until now, Mexico had only agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, resulting in an uneven enforcement of the rule. The US struggles to expel other nationalities due to costs, strained diplomatic relations and other considerations.

    Poor relations with the Venezuelan government have made it nearly impossible to apply Title 42 to Venezuelan asylum seekers, and in recent months, many had been allowed to apply for asylum and are then released into the US while they await their court dates.

    In August, Venezuelans were stopped at the US-Mexico border 25,349 times, up 43 percent from 17,652 in July and four times the 6,301 encounters in August 2021, DHS said, signalling a remarkably sudden demographic shift.

    Migrant advocates welcomed the new humanitarian programme but slammed what they said was an expansion of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that has denied access to protection to thousands of people.

    “The program … should not be viewed as a replacement for asylum protections enshrined in both US and international law,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said in a statement. “It provides only temporary protection to a very limited subset of the millions of Venezuelans forced to leave their homeland.”

    Vignarajah said the programme will disproportionately affect Venezuelans who deserve protection but do not have ties to the US.

    To qualify for entry into the US when arriving by air, an applicant must be sponsored by a US-based person or organisation, DHS said.

    Venezuelans who are accepted into the programme will be granted what is known as “humanitarian parole”, allowing them to live and work legally in the US for a limited time but not offering them a path to permanent status.

    The US and Mexico said their plan is modelled after the “Uniting for Ukraine” programme, under which the Biden administration has allowed Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion to enter the US to live and work if they can secure a financial sponsor in the country.

    The US said it plans to admit up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war for stays of up two years under the scheme. So far, the US has admitted tens of thousands of Ukrainians.

    Meanwhile, more than 6.8 million Venezuelans have fled their country since the economy tanked in 2014, mostly to Latin American and Caribbean countries.

    But an increasing number of people have been heading towards the US, and the 24,000 slots that the Biden administration is offering are fewer than the number of Venezuelans who crossed the border from Mexico in August alone.

    Alongside the agreement on Venezuelan migrants and refugees, Mexico’s foreign ministry and DHS said the US will make available about 65,000 temporary work visas for lower-skilled industries, roughly double the current annual allotment.

    At least 20,000 of those temporary visas will be reserved for people from Haiti and northern Central American countries.

    “The United States government has accepted the request of the Mexican government to substantially increase labor mobility in the region,” Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The new proposal represents important and innovative progress towards the shared goal of ensuring orderly, safe, regular and humane migration.”

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  • Venezuela landslide kills at least 39 people, over 50 missing | CNN

    Venezuela landslide kills at least 39 people, over 50 missing | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A landslide in Venezuela on Sunday has killed at least 39 people and left over 50 missing in the north central state of Aragua, Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro announced Tuesday.

    Maduro also hinted that hopes to safely rescue the missing are fading. “We are approaching almost 100 victims, fatal victims, in this tragedy,” he said, in a video statement to state broadcaster VTV.

    More than three days have passed since the catastrophic landslide came down in the Santos Michelena municipality, after days of heavy rainfall.

    The downpour caused five streams near Las Tejerías to overflow, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said on Monday, adding that search efforts were ongoing.

    More than 1,000 officials from the National Risk Management System and police officers are participating in the search and rescue operation, according to Carlos Pérez, deputy minister for Risk Management and Civil Protection.

    Maduro also announced emergency funding had been made available to survivors, and called for patience from the local population.

    It will take time to reach all the families affected by the tragedy, he said.

    At least 1,300 families have been affected by the landslide, according to the Ministry of Communications, which updated the tolls of the dead and missing.

    In total, 317 homes have been destroyed and 757 homes were affected by the landslide, according to Rodriguez. More than 10,000 families have experience water outages, he added.

    On Sunday, Venezuela began three days of national mourning for victims of the disaster.

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  • At least 22 dead after landslide sweeps through Venezuela town

    At least 22 dead after landslide sweeps through Venezuela town

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    A landslide fueled by flooding and days of torrential rain swept through a town in central Venezuela, leaving at least 22 people dead as it dragged mud, rocks and trees through neighborhoods, authorities said Sunday. Dozens of people are missing.

    Residents of Las Tejerías in Santos Michelena, an agro-industrial town in Aragua state 54 miles (87 kilometers) southwest of Caracas, had just seconds to reach safety late Saturday as debris swept down a mountainside onto them.

    The official death toll rose to 22 after the recovery of 20 bodies on Sunday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told state-owned Venezolana de Televisión.

    “There was a large landslide in the central area of Las Tejerías” where five streams overflowed, she said from the scene of the disaster. “We have already found 22 dead people; there are more than 52 missing.”

    “There are still people walled in,” Rodríguez said. “We are trying to rescue them, to rescue them alive.”

    She said shelters will be set up for people who lost their homes.

    APTOPIX Venezuela Floods
    Residents walk through the debris left by flooding caused by a river that overflowed after days of intense rain in Las Tejerias, Venezuela, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022.

    Matias Delacroix / AP


    Higher on the mountainside, most of the houses were swept away, including those of a group of Evangelicals who were praying when the landslide hit, said homemaker Carmen Teresa Chirinos, a resident of Las Tejerías. Families in tears hugged in front of destroyed homes and businesses.

    “There are a lot of people missing,” Chirinos said.

    Hours earlier, Major Gen. Carlos Pérez Ampueda, the vice minister for risk management and civil protection, had said via Twitter that several people were reported missing in the El Béisbol and La Agotada neighborhoods in the north of the town. Dozens of homes were damaged by the landslide.

    Rescuers were carrying out search operations with trained dogs and drones, Pérez Ampueda said. Crews of workers and heavy machinery removed debris to clear roads and restore electricity and water services.

    APTOPIX Venezuela Floods
    Men drag a live pig they found stuck in mud after flooding caused by intense rains in Las Tejerias, Venezuela, Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022. At least 22 people died after intense rain overflowed a ravine causing flash floods, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said.

    Matias Delacroix / AP


    “So many families lost their houses and I, as a businessman, lost my pizzeria,” said Luis Fuentes, who opened his pizza restaurant two years ago. “Look, I have nothing.”

    Aragua Gov. Karina Carpio said the flood waters “terribly affected” 21 sectors in Las Tejerías, capital of the Santos Michelena municipality, which has some 54,000 inhabitants.

    During the past week, torrential rains have caused flooding in 11 of Venezuela’s 23 states.

    President Nicolás Maduro said 20.000 officials, including rescuers and members of security forces, have been deployed to affected regions.

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  • Rain-fueled landslide sweeps through Venezuela town; 22 dead

    Rain-fueled landslide sweeps through Venezuela town; 22 dead

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    LAS TEJERÍAS, Venezuela — A landslide fueled by flooding and days of torrential rain swept through a town in central Venezuela, leaving at least 22 people dead as it dragged mud, rocks and trees through neighborhoods, authorities said Sunday. Dozens of people are missing.

    Residents of Las Tejerías in Santos Michelena, an agro-industrial town in Aragua state 54 miles (87 kilometers) southwest of Caracas, had just seconds to reach safety late Saturday as debris swept down a mountainside onto them.

    The official death toll rose to 22 after the recovery of 20 bodies on Sunday, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez told state-owned Venezolana de Televisión.

    “There was a large landslide in the central area of Las Tejerías” where five streams overflowed, she said from the scene of the disaster. “We have already found 22 dead people; there are more than 52 missing.”

    “There are still people walled in,” Rodríguez said. “We are trying to rescue them, to rescue them alive.”

    She said shelters will be set up for people who lost their homes.

    Higher on the mountainside, most of the houses were swept away, including those of a group of Evangelicals who were praying when the landslide hit, said homemaker Carmen Teresa Chirinos, a resident of Las Tejerías. Families in tears hugged in front of destroyed homes and businesses.

    “There are a lot of people missing,” Chirinos said.

    Hours earlier, Major Gen. Carlos Pérez Ampueda, the vice minister for risk management and civil protection, had said via Twitter that several people were reported missing in the El Béisbol and La Agotada neighborhoods in the north of the town. Dozens of homes were damaged by the landslide.

    Rescuers were carrying out search operations with trained dogs and drones, Pérez Ampueda said. Crews of workers and heavy machinery removed debris to clear roads and restore electricity and water services.

    “So many families lost their houses and I, as a businessman, lost my pizzeria,” said Luis Fuentes, who opened his pizza restaurant two years ago. “Look, I have nothing.”

    Aragua Gov. Karina Carpio said the flood waters “terribly affected” 21 sectors in Las Tejerías, capital of the Santos Michelena municipality, which has some 54,000 inhabitants.

    During the past week, torrential rains have caused flooding in 11 of Venezuela’s 23 states.

    President Nicolás Maduro said 20.000 officials, including rescuers and members of security forces, have been deployed to affected regions.

    ———

    Associated Press journalists Jorge Rueda contributed to this report from Caracas and Matías Delacroix from Las Tejerías.

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  • UN renews mandate for human rights mission in Venezuela

    UN renews mandate for human rights mission in Venezuela

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    Human rights groups welcome two-year extension of UN mission, which Caracas condemns as ‘designed for interventionism’.

    The United Nations Human Rights Council has renewed the mandate of its fact-finding mission in Venezuela, an initiative Caracas considers an aggressive tool for interfering in domestic matters.

    The mandate to extend the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission for Venezuela (FFM) for two more years was approved by 19 votes to five against and 23 abstentions during a Council session in Geneva on Friday.

    The UN mission was first created in 2019 to look into alleged human rights violations in the country.

    Those opposed were Cuba, Bolivia, China, Eritrea and Venezuela itself, whose representative to the Council, Ambassador Hector Constant Rosales, dubbed the resolution “hostile”.

    Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria said on Twitter that the FFM’s extension was “a new attack against Venezuela”.

    The mission “is designed for interventionism and for the falsification of reality. This commission is a political instrument for the most brazen defamation on issues of human rights“, he added.

    In September, the mission’s third report found that state intelligence agencies under President Nicolas Maduro’s helm had suppressed the opposition through arbitrary detentions and torture that amounted to crimes against humanity.

    The intelligence agencies “made use of sexual and gender-based violence to torture and humiliate their detainees” since at least 2014 and “the violations and crimes … continue to this day”, the report said.

    The Venezuelan government responded that the report’s accusations were “false and unfounded”.

    Venezuela is a “democratic and social state, based on the rule of law and justice, which is committed to the promotion, respect and protection of human rights”, the government said.

    Human rights groups welcomed the FFM’s extension.

    The renewal is a “sign of support for the countless victims of grave human rights violations that have been, and continue to be, committed in the country,” Amnesty International’s Americas Director Erika Guevara Rosas said on Twitter.

    Human Rights Watch called the FFM’s extension “extremely important” and said it plays “an early warning role in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential elections”.

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  • Iran’s ‘women’s revolution’ could be a Berlin Wall moment | CNN Politics

    Iran’s ‘women’s revolution’ could be a Berlin Wall moment | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    The Islamic regime in Iran has ruled for decades with fear and intimidation.

    Outrage at the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22 year-old who died after being detained by Iran’s morality policy, allegedly for improperly wearing her hijab, ignited nationwide protests across the country that have gone on for weeks.

    That Iranians are risking their lives and freedom to stand up to their government has sparked hope among many that change is coming. Read CNN’s latest report.

    I talked on the phone to Masih Alinejad, an Iranian in exile in the US who works as a journalist and activist.

    Key points:

    • She uses social media – 8 million followers on Instagram alone – to amplify and aid the protests inside Iran.
    • US authorities charged four Iranian nationals with trying to kidnap her last year.
    • To Alinejad, that women in Iran are removing their headscarves as an act of protest is equal to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
    • She sees solidarity with dissidents from other oil-rich autocracies like Russia and Venezuela, and has a stern message for feminists in the West.

    Our conversation, edited for clarity and length, is below. I’ve also added some context and links in parentheses where appropriate.

    WHAT MATTERS: This newsletter is not usually focused on Iran. Can you first just explain what’s happening?

    ALINEJAD: Mahsa Amini was only 22 years old. … She came from Saqqez to Tehran for a vacation. Then she got arrested by the so-called morality police – because I call them the hijab police.

    And for your audience, if they don’t know what morality police means, they’re a bunch of police walking in the streets, telling people whether their way of wearing hijab is proper or not.

    Mahsa was arrested for wearing inappropriate hijab. So she was not unveiled.

    (Here is a CNN report in which the Iranian police deny the allegation she was beaten.)

    ALINEJAD: That created huge anger among Iranians. And that is why women across Iran first started to cut their hair. Then they took to the street and they started to burn their headscarves. And now, with men, shoulder to shoulder, across Iran they’re not only saying no to compulsory hijab, they are actually chanting against the dictator and they are saying we want an end to the Islamic Republic.

    This is a revolution.

    To me, this is a women’s revolution against a gender apartheid regime.

    WHAT MATTERS: The Iranian government has tried to crack down on this. We see video that gets out of Iran of these protests. How have things changed in the weeks since Mahsa’s death?

    ALINEJAD: From the beginning, the level of crackdown was so brutal. They opened fire, they really opened fire on teenagers, school leaders, university students, they opened fire on unarmed people.

    Now some reports say more than 130 people have been killed. But it’s strongly believed the number is much more than this. Only in Zahedan on only one day, they opened fire on those who were praying. Who were praying. They killed more than 80 people in Zahedan.

    (CNN has not verified all of these claims. Related CNN report: Iranian security forces beat, shot and detained students of elite Tehran university, witnesses say.

    Amnesty International has reported on the killing of 66 in Zahedan along with other deaths recorded in other places.

    Regarding death tolls: CNN cannot independently verify the death toll –  a precise figure is impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm – and different estimates have been given by opposition groups, international rights organizations and local journalists.)

    ALINEJAD: The Iranian regime cut off the internet in some cities to prevent the rest of the world from getting to know about the crackdown, to get to learn about the number of people killed.

    But again. That didn’t stop people. Actually, it changed the tone of the protesters. They became more angry. They were holding the names and photos of those who got killed and the major slogan was this: ‘We are ready to die, but we won’t live under humiliation.’

    One of the young women whose name was Hadis Najafi, she was only 20 years old. She made a video of herself walking in the street and saying I’m joining the protests. In the future, if I see that Iran has changed, that change came, then I was proudly part of this demonstration. She got killed. There are many of them.

    (CNN has reported that Najafi’s family said she was shot six times and never made it home from a protest. She was 23. There are reports of multiple young women killed. Here’s a CNN video report on Nika Shahkarami, whose family found her body at a morgue after not being able to find her for 10 days following an Instagram story of her burning her headscarf.)

    Students filmed themselves burning their headscarves, but they got killed. But murdering and killing didn’t stop the protests. Instead they became more angry. Now schoolgirls came out, university professors came out, teachers came out and ask for a strike.

    (Here’s a CNN report that explains the special significance of strikes in Iran.)

    WHAT MATTERS: The flashpoint is one woman’s death that set off all of these protests. But it’s a movement that’s been building for months –

    ALINEJAD: Don’t say for months. I don’t accept that. It has been building for years. Years of women pushing back the boundaries the anti-woman laws, especially compulsory hijab laws.

    For years and years, these women that you see in the streets, they have been fighting back compulsory hijabs alone. Like lonely soldiers. I myself have published videos of women being beaten by morality police under the hashtag #mycameraismyweapon. I really want you to go and check this hashtag. Brave women filming themselves while being harassed by morality police and looking to the morality police and saying that you cannot tell me what to wear.

    Slavery used to be legal. I’m not going to respect bad law in Iran.

    This is being built up by women within the society practicing their civil disobedience in bravely saying no to forced hijab and the gender apartheid regime for years and years. That’s my opinion. Mahsa’s name became a symbol of resistance for women to take to the streets in large numbers. That’s the new thing.

    WHAT MATTERS: How will this be transformed into permanent change? How will it evolve from here?

    ALINEJAD: Look, this is not going to happen overnight. This is the beginning of an end. It takes time. It reminds me of the revolution 40 years ago. People were taking to the streets for like one month and were going back home and then coming back again. The national strike helped a lot. For me and millions of people, this is just the beginning to an end.

    The compulsory hijab is not just a small piece of cloth for Iranians. It’s like the Berlin Wall. I keep saying that. If women can successfully tear this wall down, the Islamic Republic won’t exist.

    Maybe in the West, people ignore me and they never take this seriously. But the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, he knows what I’m talking about. That’s why, just two days ago, he referred to my statement comparing the hijab to the Berlin Wall, saying that ‘she is an American agent and we have taken action against her.’

    (Alinejad shared this video of Khamenei on Twitter, in which he refers to US political elements making the comparison to the Berlin Wall.)

    ALINEJAD: But it’s not me. It’s millions of people who believe that compulsory hijab is like the main pillar of the religious dictatorship. It’s like the main pillar of the Islamic Republic.

    That’s why I believe that now people are being fearless and clear that we want to break this weakest pillar of the Islamic Republic… I strongly believe that the biggest threat to the Islamic Republic are the women who are leading the revolution, who are facing guns and bullets and saying that we want an end for this gender apartheid regime.

    WHAT MATTERS: In Iran, and we’ve seen this in Russia as well, social media is helping spread the word and is essential to organizing protests. Here in the US, it is often viewed as a threat to our democracy because that’s where misinformation is spread. I wonder if you had any thoughts on that dichotomy.

    ALINEJAD: Let me be very clear with you. Right now, the tech companies are actually helping the Islamic Republic. First of all, Iranians are banned from using social media – Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are filtered. The leaders like Khamenei and other officials who ban 80 million people from using social media, they all have verified accounts. They have multiple accounts on social media. Basically, the Iranian regime cut off the Internet for its own people, but they’re being more than welcomed on social media to spread fake information, misinformation, disinformation.

    (Accounts that appear to be associated with Khamenei are on Twitter and Instagram and have large followings. They are not verified by Instagram or Twitter. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Meta said this in an email: “Iranians use apps like Instagram to stay close to their loved ones, find information and shed light on important events – and we hope the Iranian authorities restore their access soon. In the meantime, our teams are following the situation closely, and are focused on only removing content that breaks our rules, while addressing any enforcement mistakes as quickly as possible.”)

    WHAT MATTERS: The US government has tried to increase Iranian’s access to the internet. Is that working?

    ALINEJAD: Oh, of course, this is phenomenal. But we need more. We need more.

    The thing is, at the same time, the US government, we’re pleased that they’re providing internet access for Iranians. This is good. We appreciate that.

    But at the same time, the US government is focused on getting a deal from this regime, the same regime.

    They condemn the brutality, they condemn the Iranian government for killings, but at the same time, they try to give money, billions of dollars, to the same murderers. And I don’t understand this contradiction.

    (The US government could give Iran’s government ​access to billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds if it re-joins an agreement whereby Iran can sell oil in exchange for abandoning nuclear weapons capability. Recent talks, however, have not gone well. Read more.)

    ALINEJAD: Many people in the streets are now risking their lives and want an end for the same regime. They aren’t asking for US government to go there and save them at all. They’re brave enough to do it themselves. But they’re really clearly asking the US government not to save the Iranian regime. …

    People believe that the money goes to the benefit of the people. It doesn’t go to the people. The money goes to Syria, Lebanon, to Hamas, Hezbollah, to terrorist organizations.

    For millions of Iranians now, this is the moment they want the US government to ask its allies, the European countries, to recall their ambassadors and to cut their ties with the murders until the day that they are sure that the Iranian regime is stopped killing its own people.

    (CNN isn’t able to confirm that all the money goes to terrorist organizations or that none of it goes to Iranian people. Iran does fund terror groups outside its borders, according to the US government, and its own Islamic Revolutionary Guard is a terror group, according to the US government.)

    WHAT MATTERS: I want to talk about another dichotomy you’ve pointed out. You wrote in The Washington Post that feminists all over the world need to pay attention and take to the streets.

    ALINEJAD: You cannot call yourself a feminist in the West, in America, and not take action on one of the most important feminist revolutions, in Iran.

    By saying that, I don’t mean that I want the feminists to just appear on TV and cut their hair to show their solidarity.

    I want, especially the female politicians, to cut their ties … and instead take to the streets to show their solidarity with the women of Iran. When the Women’s March happened here in America, like every single feminist around the world showed solidarity. I was part of the Women’s March in New York. The main slogan was ‘my body my choice.’

    But at the same time I’m witnessing that when it comes to Iran and Afghanistan, it seems that my body my choice is not as important as it is in the West.

    (Here Alinejad said women representing Western governments who meet with Iranian and Afghan officials should refrain from wearing headscarves.)

    WHAT MATTERS: You took part this week in an Oslo Freedom Forum event in New York with other dissidents from Russia and Venezuela. Those are two places that are repressive, and they’re also funded largely by oil. The US wants more oil on the market. I just wondered if you had any larger comments to make on this question?

    ALINEJAD: This is what’s missing here. The dictators are more united than our freedom fighters.

    Let me give you an example. Just two months ago, (Vladimir) Putin went to Iran. (Nicolás) Maduro from Venezuela went to Iran … from China to Russia to Venezuela to Nicaragua, everywhere. The leaders from autocracies and dictatorships are united. They’re helping each other. They’re supporting each other to oppress protests taking place in each country. But we the freedom fighters, we the opposition to these dictators must be united as well, because when we fight against autocracy or dictatorship on our own, we’re not going to be successful.

    (Alinejad said she has talked to dissidents from Russia and Venezuela about calling a World Liberty Congress for opposition and activist leaders.)

    ALINEJAD: If we don’t get united to end dictatorship, then the dictators will get united to end democracy. We’re not fighting just for ourselves. I’m not fighting just for Iran. Garry Kasparov is not fighting for just Russia. Leopoldo Lopez is not fighting just for Venezuela. We are fighting for democracy. We’re trying to protect the rest of the world from these dictators.

    (Our conversation continued from here and Alinejad argued the “United Nations is useless.” It’s true the United Nations prioritizes inclusion of most countries over action. And it is awkward at best that Iran sits on the UN’s Commission on Women’s Rights and Russia sits on the Security Council.)

    ALINEJAD: We need to have our own alternative United Nations, where all the good people get united, not the bad guys. Now the bad guys are winning because they’re helping each other. So this is the time that all the good people who care for freedom and democracy get united and have their own society.

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  • US could ease Venezuela sanctions, allow Chevron to pump oil: WSJ

    US could ease Venezuela sanctions, allow Chevron to pump oil: WSJ

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    Biden administration preparing to ease sanctions if Caracas takes steps towards restoring democracy, report says.

    The United States is considering loosening sanctions on Venezuela so Chevron Corp can pump oil in the country if Caracas takes steps towards restoring democracy, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

    Under the proposed deal, the Biden administration would ease some sanctions in exchange for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro resuming talks with the political opposition on the conditions needed to hold free and fair elections in 2024, the newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the proposal.

    US officials said the deal had not been finalised and could fall through if Maduro’s government did not resume negotiations with opposition parties, according to the report.

    The deal would pave the way for Chevron and US oil-service companies to resume exports of Venezuelan oil to the global market amid spiralling energy prices worldwide.

    Energy experts have cautioned that Venezuela’s oil supplies could have a limited effect on prices as the country’s production has plummeted after years of economic crisis, mismanagement and sanctions.

    Venezuela’s oil industry has been under tough US sanctions since 2019, when the Trump administration and Western allies declared opposition leader Juan Guaidó the country’s legitimate leader following elections marred by voting rigging allegations.

    White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson on Wednesday said the administration had no plans to change its sanctions policy “without constructive steps” for Maduro to restore democracy.

    “Our sanctions policy on Venezuela remains unchanged. We will continue to implement and enforce our Venezuela sanctions,” Watson said in a statement following the Wall Street Journal report.

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  • Venezuela frees 7 U.S. citizens in prisoner swap

    Venezuela frees 7 U.S. citizens in prisoner swap

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    Venezuela frees 7 U.S. citizens in prisoner swap – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    President Biden announced the return of seven U.S. citizens imprisoned in Venezuela. In exchange, the U.S. agreed to release two nephews of President Nicolas Maduro’s wife who were convicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges. Christina Ruffini has the details.

    Be the first to know

    Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.


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  • Biden announces return of seven American detainees from Venezuela | CNN Politics

    Biden announces return of seven American detainees from Venezuela | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden on Saturday announced the return of seven Americans he said were wrongfully detained in Venezuela for “years.”

    “Today, after years of being wrongfully detained in Venezuela, we are bringing home Jorge Toledo, Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Zambrano, Jose Luis Zambrano, Jose Pereira, Matthew Heath, and Osman Khan. These individuals will soon be reunited with their families and back in the arms of their loved ones where they belong,” the President said in a statement.

    The seven American detainees were released in exchange for the release of two Venezuelans imprisoned in the US, both nephews of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores.

    Vadell, Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, and Pereira are five of the six American oil executives known as the “CITGO 6” arrested in Venezuela more than four years ago. Two Americans who had been detained there, including one of the CITGO 6, were released in March following the visit of two top US government officials to Caracas. Heath, a Marine veteran, was detained in September 2020. Khan has been detained since January 2022. All seven individuals were classified by the US government as wrongfully detained.

    Vadell, Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Pereira, Heath, and Khan, a senior administration official told reporters Saturday, are in “stable health” and have been offered medical care and a “range of support options.” They are currently in the air on the way back to the US, the official said. A second senior official told reporters that US officials met with each of the seven individuals upon their release and are expected to receive further evaluation Saturday.

    Biden spoke with each of the families to “share the good news of their release,” the first senior official said.

    The official described the prisoner exchange with Venezuela as a “tough” and “painful” decision for Biden and the US government.

    “Over the course of those negotiations, it became clear that one particular step was required to garner the only acceptable outcome: that of free Americans. The President made a tough decision, a painful decision, and offered something that the Venezuelans have actively sought. Specifically, it became clear in the course of negotiation that the release of two Venezuelans, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, sometimes referred to as the ‘Narco nephews’ due to their relationship with Nicolas Maduro’s wife, was essential to securing the release of these Americans,” the official said.

    In 2016, Flores and Campo were convicted in US federal court of conspiring to smuggle more than 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States. They were sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2017.

    Biden, the first official said, “made the difficult decision to grant clemency” to both Flores and Campo.

    The President approved the swap a “number of weeks back,” and was followed by negotiation and logistical efforts that “took some time to work out,” the official said.

    The released Venezuelans and Americans were both flown to “a country in between Venezuela and the United States” for the exchange. Once both planes landed, there was both virtual and visual confirmation “that the right passengers were ready to travel” and “passengers departed on different planes than the ones they came in on,” the first official said.

    Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, is with the freed Americans, the official added. Carstens’ initial impressions, the official said, were that the freed Americans were “overjoyed” to be returning to their families, declining to elaborate further on their conditions.

    Their release comes months after a US government delegation quietly traveled to Venezuela in June “for discussions about the welfare and safety of US nationals in Venezuela,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN at the time.

    The Zambrano family is “thrilled” that they have been freed and can now “get the much needed medical care they need” in the US, the family said in a statement.

    “We could not have made it this far without the advocates and other hostage families that have so generously been a light in darkness to get us to this blessed day,” the family said.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the latest development and congratulated State Department personnel for “their tireless efforts to achieve this outcome.”

    “Although we celebrate the release of these U.S. nationals from Venezuela, we still have more work to do. The safety and security of Americans worldwide is my highest priority as Secretary of State, and we will continue to press for the release of all U.S. nationals wrongfully detained abroad,” he said in a statement.

    A spokesperson for the Bring our Families Home Campaign celebrated the news of the detainees’ release “after a long and difficult captivity.”

    “We applaud President Biden for having the courage to make this deal and encourage him and the Administration to continue building upon the momentum that begun with (Trevor Reed’s) release,” spokesperson Jonathan Franks said, alluding to the former Marine who was detained in Russia in 2019 and was released in a prisoner swap earlier this year.

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Venezuela releases 7 jailed Americans; U.S. frees 2 prisoners

    Venezuela releases 7 jailed Americans; U.S. frees 2 prisoners

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    Venezuela on Saturday freed seven Americans imprisoned in the South American country in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicholas Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions, a senior U.S. official said.

    The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens ever carried out by the Biden administration.

    “We are relieved and gratified to be welcoming back to their families today seven Americans who had been wrongfully detained for too long in Venezuela,” said Joshua Geltzer, the deputy homeland security adviser.

    It amounts to a rare gesture of goodwill by Maduro as the socialist leader looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his domestic opponents. The deal follows months of back channel diplomacy by Washington’s top hostage negotiator and other U.S. officials — secretive talks with a major oil producer that took on greater urgency after sanctions on Russia put pressure on global energy prices.

    Those freed include five employees of Houston-based Citgo — Tomeu Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and Jose Pereira — who were lured to Venezuela right before Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of the company’s parent, state-run-oil giant PDVSA. Once there, they were hauled away by masked security agents who busted into a Caracas conference room.

    Also released was Matthew Heath, a former U.S. Marine corporal from Tennessee who was arrested in 2020 at a roadblock in Venezuela on what the State Department has called “specious” weapons charges, and Florida man, Osman Khan, who was arrested in January.

    The United States freed Franqui Flores and his cousin Efrain Campo nephews of “First Combatant” Cilia Flores, as Maduro has called his wife. The men were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in 2015 and immediately taken to New York to face trial. They were convicted the following year in a highly charged case that cast a hard look at U.S. accusations of drug trafficking at the highest levels of Maduro’s administration.

    Both men were granted clemency by President Joe Biden before the release.

    The Biden administration has been under pressure to do more to bring home the roughly 60 Americans it believes are held hostage abroad or wrongfully detained by hostile foreign governments. While much of the focus is on Russia, where the U.S. has so far tried unsuccessfully to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American, Paul Whelan, Venezuela has been holding the largest contingent of Americans suspected of being used as bargaining chips.

    At least four other Americans remain detained in Venezuela, including two former Green Berets involved in a slapdash attempt to oust Maduro in 2019, and two other men who, like Khan, were detained for allegedly entering the country illegally from neighboring Colombia.

    Earlier this month, the family of Los Angeles attorney Eyvin Hernandez told CBS News that the 44-year-old took a trip to Colombia in April and never returned. They said he and a friend went to the Colombia-Venezuela border to get a passport stamp, but things went awry and the two were detained.

    The two were charged with conspiracy and association to commit crimes against the state, and Hernandez’s brother told CBS News he has had little communication with his family since he was imprisoned.

    The Biden administration did not release another prisoner long sought by Maduro: Alex Saab, an insider businessman who Venezuela considers a diplomat and U.S. prosecutors a corrupt regime enabler. Saab fought extradition from Cape Verde, where he was arrested last year during a stopover en route to Iran, and is now awaiting trial in Miami federal court on charges of siphoning off millions in state contracts.

    The oil executives were convicted of embezzlement last year in a trial marred by delays and irregularities. They were sentenced to between eight years and 13 years in prison for a never-executed proposal to refinance billions in the oil company’s bonds. Maduro at the time accused them of “treason,” and Venezuela’s supreme court upheld their long sentences earlier this year. 

    The men have all pleaded not guilty and the State Department has regarded them — and the two other Americans freed on Saturday — as wrongfully detained.

    Earlier this year, two American citizens who the U.S. considered unjustly detained were released from a Venezuelan prison. Gustavo Cardenas, one of the detained Citgo executives, and tourist Jorge Fernandez returned to the U.S. in early March.

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  • Dmitry Paniotto Prepared to Help Venezuelan Refugees Who Take Advantage of Biden Policy

    Dmitry Paniotto Prepared to Help Venezuelan Refugees Who Take Advantage of Biden Policy

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Mar 29, 2021


    LOS ANGELES, March 29, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Paniotto Law, a law firm that has experience with immigration cases in Los Angeles, recently announced that they will be able to assist Venezuelan refugees with their immigration. This is specifically in response to the Biden administration’s new policy.

    Recently, the Biden administration announced that they are “granting temporary protected status to Venezuelan migrants living in the United States.” As there are “extraordinary temporary conditions” in Venezuela such as “widespread hunger and malnutrition, growing presence and influence of non-state armed groups, a crumbling infrastructure,” administration officials have said, “it is not safe for (migrants) to return.”

    This could help roughly 320,000 people. To qualify, “Venzuelans in the United States will have to show they have been residing in the country continuously as of March 8, 2021, to qualify for the Temporary Protected Status (TPs) designation.” Should they meet that criteria, they “will be given an 18-month reprieve to stay and can also obtain work permits.” 

    “The situation in Venezuela is tragic and untenable. Our firm has been helping people to stay in America for many different reasons over almost two decades. Now, we can utilize this policy change as well. If you or someone you love meets the minimum standards for the policy, we can do everything in our power to make sure that you or that person in your life can stay in America legally. With this policy change, more people can remain in American to live the life that they want. We’ll be more than glad to help,” said Dmitry Paniotto, Los Angeles Immigration Attorney. 

    Much of the firm’s focus is on asylum and deportation cases. In addition to assisting Venezuelan refugees, they also help with political asylum cases, DACA, those who have been arrested at the border, and many other cases involving immigration law. 

    For more information about the Biden administration’s new rules about Venezuelan refugees, abogado para la visa u, or to make a press inquiry, contact the Paniotto Law Firm at (213) 444-5242 https://paniottolaw.com 3550 Wilshire Blvd #1770 17th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90010. 

    Additional Links: Abogados De Inmigración en Los Angeles

    Source: Paniotto Law Firm

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