The Latin American Report # 442

I commented in a recent report that some migrants were opting to return to their countries of origin following the tightening of immigration policies in the United States. Many are already doing so, mostly Venezuelans, with the aspiration of trying their luck at least temporarily in Costa Rica or Colombia. Haitians, Peruvians, and Colombians are also among those traveling back, according to EFE. “We are going back to Venezuela. They say [in the U.S.] that we are criminals, but we are parents. They held me [there] for a month and a half and released me a fortnight ago,” said a native of Maracaibo.

Panama and Costa Rica have agreed on a protocol to address this nascent reverse migration flow, whereby migrants can be repatriated to their countries on Washington-backed flights following criminal background checks. But some remain committed to the American dream and are willing to turn themselves into U.S. authorities in Arizona. A Catholic priest who runs a shelter for migrants in the desert municipality of Altar, Sonora state, says that the services of human smugglers have become more selective or discreet, and therefore more expensive, amid increased surveillance on both sides of the border. A Venezuelan woman who left the oil-rich nation with her children told AP that she has no choice but to remain in Baja California, on the border with San Diego, where she seeks to regularize her immigration status.

Some of this woman's relatives are already in the U.S. thanks to a disbanded Biden flagship humanitarian parole program—through which more than 117,000 Venezuelans arrived in the U.S.—but now the fear deportation. The Trump administration has not established a procedure for migrants to apply for asylum at least from Mexico, despite formally reinstating the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy. The latter forces migrants to wait for the resolution of their asylum cases on Aztec soil, unlike the CBP One program, which allowed them to enter the United States and wait for the decision of the immigration courts on the northern side of the border. Already in Houston, Honduran migrants are voluntarily putting an end to the American dream with mixed feelings. The United States has deported nearly 2,800 Hondurans so far this year, with four flights carried out by the U.S. Armed Forces.

In Cuba by mistake?

Spanish news agency EFE interviewed relatives of three Venezuelans who landed at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, following the Trump administration's decision to expand a migrant detention center that has been operating there since the last century. According to their loved ones, they are not related to crime, and much less particularly are they associated with the so-called Tren de Aragua, the criminal gang that was born in the prisons of that referred Venezuelan state. The circumstances of their arrests are not entirely clear, according to EFE, which found no evidence of criminal record for them and instead, a certain pattern that discriminates by default against Venezuelans with tattoos allegedly allegorical to the gang.

_{In this photo from 2018, you see an Army soldier and a Marine standing in front of the gates separating the Cuban side from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo. On the Cuban side, there is a sign reading “Republic of Cuba. Free Territory of America”, in Spanish (source).}

Colombia

Scandals have marked Gustavo Petro's administration, and the president himself is awkwardly further muddying his deteriorating position even within his political force. The appointment of the controversial former Colombian ambassador to Madrid, Armando Benedetti, as head of the presidential office sparked a cabinet rebellion that was broadcast on television, with Petro later demanding the formal resignation of all his ministers and other senior officials. Allegations of corruption and macho violence have fallen on Benedetti, including in the first case the alleged receipt of illegal funds for Petro's 2022 presidential campaign, which Petro denies knowledge of but does not firmly rule out. So far five ministers have resigned.

Colombia defense minister will leave gov't, ministry says https://t.co/gq6Lb52Vzf pic.twitter.com/ZWUxfiNjVs
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 11, 2025

"...which found no evidence of criminal record for them and instead, a certain pattern that discriminates by default against Venezuelans with tattoos allegedly allegorical to the gang."

Certainly with as extensive a legal edifice as modern states generally, and the USA specifically, have erected, there can be little doubt than any human being in the jurisdiction must be a law breaker of some kind. In the 1990s the GAO (government accounting office) published a statement that ~90% of Americans were guilty of a felony under the voluminous laws it's legislature had passed and were signed by the executive into effect, I recall. These decades later, with the eager activity of that hive of villainy continually buzzing since, there can be no one that is not a felon wandering the streets of America and simply hasn't been caught, or such laws enforced.

Oppressive governments often do this to enable arbitrary law enforcement to be selectively applied to whomever TPTB seek to silence and remove from their demesne. Despite the Declaration of Independence bemoaning such as tyranny, it is easy enough to practice that it is a common thing.

Because of this the claim of the EFE that no criminal record for those unfortunates is extant actually means they're criminals that just haven't been previously caught. Every American is, and each of them is sure no one is any better than them. When gang tattoos are alleged, almost everyone will immediately believe they are just clever enough not to have got caught in some desperate criminal enterprise yet. Clearly, absent any familiarity with TdA tattoos, and without visuals of the captives, I can make no judgment of them on that basis, but surely the same bias would pertain in Cuba were the same story published about captives of the Cuban government.

All we know is what we are told about such things.

Thanks!