2023-12-27 22:46:56
Pedro Naranjo idolized his father when he was a boy and followed him into the Venezuelan air force to fly helicopters. Their bond was so deep that when the eldest Naranjo He feared that he would be imprisoned for conspiring against the socialist government of Nicolás Madurofather and son fled together to the United States.
Now, the two have been separated by an overburdened U.S. immigration system that has left retired Gen. Pedro Naranjo in a legal limbo in the United States.
His loyal son, a lieutenant in the Venezuelan air force, is in a Venezuelan military prison after being deported by Joe Biden’s government as part of an attempt to deter asylum seekers from the turbulent South American country.
“We never had a plan B,” Naranjo Sr. said in a phone interview from Houston. He was released after 10 days in US custody and is now awaiting the outcome of his own asylum application.
“We never thought that the United States, as an ally of democracy in the world and of the Venezuelan opposition, as a country that protects human rights and freedoms, could do what it did with my son,” he said.
The Venezuelan diaspora It is one of the most perplexing immigration challenges who await Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, on their visit to Mexico City this Wednesday to discuss the unprecedented arrivals at the United States border with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Last year, Mexico ended the policy of not requiring a visa for Venezuelans traveling through its territory and which had been a pass for those seeking asylum in the United States.
Once they reached a Mexican border town, Venezuelans could cross the border on foot in broad daylight and surrender to U.S. agents, thus avoiding the dangers of crossing Mexico and other countries by land.
Pedro Naranjo and his father, the retired general of the same name, before their ill-fated journey to the United States. Photo: AP
The restriction of flights to Mexico encouraged walk through the dangerous region of Darien. More than half a million migrants, predominantly Venezuelans, have passed through the dense rainforest on the border of Colombia and Panama this year.
The resumption for the first time in years of deportation flights from the United States to Venezuela – 10 since October, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data – has failed to stop the increase.
Venezuelans were arrested more than 85,000 times crossing the border illegally in October and November, the second highest nationality after Mexicans.
Little is known about what happens to the deportees once they are returned to their country. However, critics and members of South Florida’s tight-knit community of Venezuelan exiles have criticized the Biden administration for overlooking the serious dangers deported like Naranjo face.
Last week, a group calling itself Independent Venezuelan American Citizens joined with Miami Republican Congressman Carlos Jimenez to denounce the deportation and subsequent arrest of Naranjo Jr. at the hands of Maduro.
A rest for migrants during a caravan that is advancing these days from Mexico towards the United States. Photo: REUTERS
He said he sent a request to the White House on Dec. 12 seeking to block the deportation, but received no response. On December 14, after failing to reverse a deportation order issued by an asylum officer, Naranjo Jr. was deported, according to his father.
Ernesto Ackerman, a member of the group, declared that deportation was the equivalent of sending an American drug agent into the hands of a drug cartel.
“It’s like taking a DEA agent and sending him to Chapo Guzmán,” Ackerman said, referring to Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. “I don’t see any difference.”
Relations between Washington and Caracas
Naranjo’s deportation comes in the context of US attempts to improve relations with Caracas after the Donald Trump government’s “maximum pressure” campaign failed to topple Maduro.
In November, the White House eased oil sanctions on the OPEC nation to support nascent negotiations between Maduro and his opponents over guarantees for next year’s presidential elections.
And last week, Biden announced a presidential pardon to release from prison a key Maduro ally detained for more than three years on charges of money laundering in the United States.
Neither the White House nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement commented on the Naranjos’ situation.
The father-son saga began in 2018, when General Naranjo was arrested along with a handful of other officers for allegedly plotting to assassinate Maduro, sow chaos and disrupt Venezuela’s presidential election that year. Naranjo denies his involvement in a barracks uprising dubbed “Operation Armageddon” by Maduro, but he was still subjected to a military tribunal, along with other alleged conspirators, on charges including rebellion and treason.
In 2021, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Naranjo was hospitalized after suffering a stroke in prison. Under international pressure from Maduro’s opponents, including the head of the Organization of American States, he was allowed to complete his sentence at home.
When the government decided to extend his defendants’ sentences, he feared that the house arrest order would be revoked and that he would be imprisoned again. He decided to flee at the end of 2022, and his son, who he claims never conspired against Maduro’s government, joined him to ensure he arrived safely.
“His only crime was being a good son,” said María Elena Machado, who has seen her son in prison twice since his return.
The two first crossed the border into Colombia, home to more than 4 million Venezuelans who have fled their homes since 2016. But with a Maduro ally in power – Gustavo Petro – and Marxist rebels still lurking in the countryside, the two They felt unsafe, so they decided to undertake the dangerous journey on foot through the Darien jungle to the United States. On October 4, they crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas, and They surrendered to the United States Border Patrol.
A group of migrants walk towards the border with the United States, in Arizona. Photo: REUTERS
Crossing illegally from Mexico exposed the Naranjos to stricter standards for passing initial asylum screenings.
A rule introduced in May applies the higher standard to anyone who crosses the border illegally after passing through another country, such as Mexico, without seeking protection there. Migrants must also use one of the Biden administration’s new legal avenues for asylum, such as a new mobile app for appointments at official crossings.
Illegal crossings by different nationalities, including Venezuelans, decreased after the rule was introduced, but the reduction was short-lived.
It is not clear why the asylum application was rejected from Naranjo Jr. His father said he appealed the asylum officer’s initial determination that he would not face retaliation if he was returned to Venezuela before a federal immigration judge in Pearsall, Texas, but lost.
Naranjo Jr. did not have a lawyer throughout the process, according to his father. Asylum seekers have the right to call their lawyers before screening interviews, but many advocates complain that detainees receive little notice, often during non-working hours, and cannot find help.
Venezuelans who pass the selection do relatively well before immigration judges. Its asylum granting rate was 72% in the government’s fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, compared with 52% for all nationalities, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Information Office.
Upon arrival in Venezuela, Naranjo Jr. was arrested again on charges of desertion. He is now being held in a military prison on the outskirts of Caracas along with several government opponents.
Meanwhile, migration experts warn that other Venezuelans deserving asylum could suffer the same fate.
“This is not a surprise,” Julio Henríquez, a Venezuelan-born immigration lawyer, said in Boston. “It was bound to happen at some point.”
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