Toddler left behind in US after parents deported arrives in Venezuela

Caracas; A Venezuelan toddler who was separated from her parents when they crossed the US-Mexico border a year ago and who remained in the US when they were deported arrived in the South American country on a removal flight on Wednesday.

Major figures in Venezuela's socialist government, which is under extensive US sanctions, had repeatedly called for Maikelys Espinoza Bernal, aged 2, to be returned to her mother, Yorely Bernal, who was deported back to Venezuela in April.

Images on state television showed First Lady Cilia Flores holding the child in her arms at the international airport near Caracas.

The toddler's return has been "a battle every day and today we have a great victory," said Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who was also at the airport.

The baby's father, Maiker Espinoza, 25, was sent to CECOT, the notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has sent at least 137 Venezuelans under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, in March.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in late April that Espinoza is "a lieutenant" in Tren De Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang. They said he oversees "homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house," though they provided no evidence.

Espinoza's family roundly denied the claim to Reuters.

"At no time has my son been involved with them," his mother, Maria Escalona, told Reuters this month. "I think this is political - they are using the case of my son to cover up the horror that is being committed against all these innocents."

DHS said the child's mother Bernal recruited young women for drug smuggling and sex work, though it also provided no evidence. The family has also denied the claim.

The couple met while living as migrants in Peru, where their daughter was born, his mother Escalona said, adding they were in migrant detention during their entire stay in the United States after turning themselves in at the border.

The toddler has been in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the US since May 2024.