An emotional facade masking the
cracking down on dissent
Image by Global Voices on Canva Pro. Nicolás Maduro, July 4, 2024, Photo: @maduro via Fotos Públicas. Public domain.
On
May 25, 2025, Venezuela held regional and parliamentary elections in a
government effort to demonstrate that the country still holds free and fair
elections after President Nicolás Maduro's disputed reelection in July 2024 and
despite credible evidence to the contrary.
Most
of the Venezuelan opposition called for a boycott of the 2025 regional and
parliamentary elections, faced with the dilemma of participating and risking
winning without any guarantee the result would be recognized or abstaining and
effectively handing all power to Nicolás Maduro’s government.
As
preparation for the election, the Venezuelan regime launched a new wave of
forced disappearances and detentions of dissidents, with Interior Minister
Diosdado Cabello celebrating on May 23, 2025, the capture of notable opposition
leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, who had been living in hiding since July 2024 and
was considered a “terrorist” by the Venezuelan government. On that same day,
Cabello announced the arrest of 70 politicians, activists, journalists, and
lawyers over “national security” concerns.
Parallel
to the crackdown on dissent, in an attempt to humanize the regime leadership
and as part of what it calls efforts for the “protection and safe return of
migrants” deported by the US, the government announced eleven days before the
election the return of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, a two-year-old
separated from her family by the US government.
The
people asserting this narrative frame, mostly the Venezuelan regime and its
supporters but also desperate families, portray Nicolás Maduro as the only one
who can guarantee the safety of the Venezuelan migrants targeted by
anti-migration policies in countries like the US.
Under
this reasoning, Maduro is depicted as the one making possible the reunification
of families separated by anti-migration policies outside Venezuela.
The
hostile climate against migrants in the US, where the country's government has
sent over 200 Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran mega-prison without due
process — including at least 50 men who had entered the US legally and never
violated any immigration law — and deported thousands back to Venezuela, has
become a political gain opportunity for the Venezuelan regime.
The
Trump administration's crackdown on migration has also affected around 350.000
Venezuelans under Temporal Protection Status, who are now looking desperately
for an alternative after the US Supreme Court cleared the revocation of the
program.
The
Venezuelan regime shares this narrative frame, disregarding that, according to
the UNHCR, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country due to widespread
violence, hyperinflation, gang warfare, soaring crime rates, and severe
shortages of food, medicine, and essential services.
The
collapse of the Venezuelan economy has been linked to “decades of disastrous
economic policies — and more recently, to economic sanctions” and the human
rights crisis extensively documented by organizations such as Human Rights
Watch and Amnesty International.
Espinoza
Bernal, now seen as the face of the regime's success story, was separated from
her family upon arriving in the US in 2024. She remained in government custody
after her parents were deported due to alleged ties to the Venezuelan-based
Tren de Aragua gang, according to US authorities.
Yorely
Bernal, Espinoza Bernal's mother, was deported to Venezuela on April 25, 2025.
Espinoza Bernal's father was also deported around that same time — he is one of
the men sent to the El Salvador jail.
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