Arizona Tribune - Toddler separated from parents in US deportation case returns to Venezuela

"Welcome, Maikelys," First Lady Cilia Flores said as she took the toddler into her arms on her arrival on a flight carrying Venezuelan migrants, state TV images showed.

The girl's mother, Yorelys Bernal, who was deported to Venezuela in April, was not at the airport to receive her, but officials said the two would soon be reunited.

The separation of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal from her parents had caused an outcry in the South American nation.

Several demonstrations were held in Caracas to denounce her "abduction" by US authorities.

President Nicolas Maduro thanked his US counterpart and arch-foe, Donald Trump, for returning the child to Venezuela.

Striking an unusually conciliatory tone, he said that "there have been, and will be differences" with the Trump administration but called the return of the toddler a "profoundly humane act of justice."

The little girl is one of several children caught up in Trump's crackdown on illegal migration.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the girl was placed in foster care to protect her from her parents, who it claimed were members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

Her mother said she and her husband were separated from their daughter when they handed themselves over to US authorities after arriving in the country illegally in May 2024.

Her father is believed to have been among a group of Venezuelans sent by the United States to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison.

- Tattoos -

The Trump administration said that the Venezuelans it sent to El Salvador were members of Tren de Aragua, but has provided scant evidence to back that claim.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Maikelys' father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was a Tren de Aragua "lieutenant" who oversaw "homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house."

It said the girl's mother oversaw the recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.

The mother, Bernal, 20, claimed they were detained because they had tattoos, which US authorities have linked to gang activity.

Since February, more than 4,000 migrants have been sent home to Venezuela, some deported from the United States and others from Mexico, where they had gathered in the hope of crossing into the United States.

P.Smith--AT