Incarcerated migrants: a crime against humanity

The abuses to which hundreds of young Venezuelans have been subjected in violation of their due process, violate the rules of International and Humanitarian Law, Human Rights, the United Nations Charter and every regulation established on human mobility. The voices condemning Trump’s arbitrary action are growing.

Juan Carlos Díaz Guerrero

The kidnapping of 238 migrants deported by the United States Government to El Salvador has been called a crime against humanity by authorities and the Venezuelan justice system.

This invocation by US President Donald Trump of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, through an executive order, contradicted the United States’ own laws to the point of it being temporarily inoperative due to a decision by federal judge, Brian E. Murphy. Judge Patricia Millett of the Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia circuit, was more explicit by saying that: “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here.” This is in reference to the Venezuelans deported for alleged links to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

This Law from the 18th century was used by the United States during its civil war and the First and Second World Wars, which allowed, during the latter, the internment in detention camps of 30,000 people of German, Italian and Japanese origin.

Analysts and experts consider its current use to be outside of the context currently experienced in the US, having been a provision created for times of war.

Arguments used by Washington for putting this into action are based on “an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States”, in which the Venezuelans were all accused, with no evidence, of being members of the Tren de Aragua, an organisation that was accused of terrorism.

Trump’s order extended to Venezuelans from the age of 14, so that they could be “restrained, secured and removed for being foreign aliens.”

However, the reality showed, from the testimonies of migrants who have returned to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela through the government’s Return to the Homeland plan, that the measure affected minors, those who entered the country legally and were in the process of obtaining paperwork, and residents.

The President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, reported that, with the implementation of this Law, Venezuelan migrants “are detained, segregated and transferred to other countries”.

Children are being brutally kidnapped without the intervention of the rules established by UNICEF, and “their cell phones are seized, they are taken from schools, churches and public places” without knowing where they are being taken to, he reported.

Universal condemnation

The US proclamation, based on the Alien Enemy Act of 1798, constitutes an “absolutely illegal action” that violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Rodríguez said. Therefore, he also stated that as a State, they will establish “all mechanisms possible and send the planes required to the United States for the return to their homes” of their compatriots.

Due to all of this, he launched a national and international campaign to denounce the kidnapping of migrants, which until now has included legal aspects, with hiring law firms in El Salvador and diplomacy. At the same time, events and protests have been organised with hundreds of thousands of people in the streets and squares throughout the country to support the families.

Telephone conversations have also taken place between President Nicolás Maduro and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.

Separately on 26 and 28 March respectively, both dialogues were about the request to “ensure the immediate and unconditional release of compatriots unjustly detained in the concentration camps of El Salvador.”

Senior UN officials expressed their commitment to “activating all the available mechanisms to re-establish as soon as possible the flagrantly violated rights of the Venezuelan migrants,” according to the official report.

The Venezuelan government has said that it will not rest “until it guarantees the safe return to the homeland of every unjustly imprisoned compatriot.”

Another important element has been the unanimous support and condemnation by the foreign ministers and high-ranking officials of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty at the recent 25th Meeting of the Political Council, held in Caracas. There have also been countless messages and statements of solidarity from governments, political parties, and popular, social, and religious movements from around the world.

In Venezuela, beyond the political contradictions, a recent survey by the Hinterlaces firm revealed that 89% of those interviewed rejected the invocation of the Foreign Enemy Law, and 91% indicated that it profoundly violated human rights. Likewise, 85% said they agreed with the government’s Return to the Homeland programme.

An almost widespread sentiment was expressed by the opposition legislator Jesús Brito, who called from the National Assembly for unity “to defend the rights of our brothers and sisters.”