Venezuelans in the U.S have seen the tactics ICE uses before
Migrants describe "an atmosphere of terror" comparing Trump policies to persecution they faced in their home-nation
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I used to cover Venezuela full-time. The peak of the Venezuelan exodus between 2017 and 2019 was how I became a professional freelancer — writing from both sides of the Venezuelan-Colombian borderlands.
Because of that time, I have a lot of Venezuelan friends and contacts, in both the U.S. and Venezuela. Over the last few months, the messages from the Venezuelans I know in both places have become eerily similar.
“I don’t post anything political on social media,” says a friend in Táchira, who asked that her name not be published for personal safety reasons. “I don’t use my real name on anything. No photos. All accounts are anonymous,” she continues.
She wipes all messages on her phone, as it is regularly revised by police and military at checkpoints. It’s a phenomenon that has worsened since Maduro’s suspected fraud during elections in July 2024. Hundreds of people have been detained for their opinions. Hundreds more have been forcibly “disappeared”. Others have been killed. Human Rights Watch released a report detailing the situation on April 30.
Masked men in military uniforms grab students off the street with dubious or no evidence, or for criticizing the government on social media, and even for writing op-eds. Children are disappeared, or their parents are, and the children are left behind with no information on their whereabouts.
Many of those who are detained have been charged with no crime and are held incommunicado in the infamous Caracas prison, Helicoide. Human Rights Watch and United Nations investigators have documented torture, extrajudicial executions, and mysterious deaths at the complex, which Venezuela describes as a facility for “terrorists”.
Meanwhile, in the U.S, old tactics against migrant populations have been amped up to a massive scale by the administration of Donald Trump. Heavily armed ICE officers, wearing masks to hide their identities and garbed in military gear, have raided workplaces, courtrooms, homes, and even schools, disappearing thousands, including children, and even U.S. citizens.
