Caracas [Venezuela ], March 22: Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Friday that none of the hundreds of Venezuelans deported by the U.S. to a Salvadoran prison is a member of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua criminal gang, the reason Washington gave for expelling them.
"I believe with absolute responsibility that not a single one appears on the organizational chart of the now-extinct Tren de Aragua organization, not a single one," Cabello said on a podcast, saying he had names of the deportees from U.S. media and his own source.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday invoked an obscure wartime law to deport rapidly people who were, according to the White House, members of the Venezuelan gang, which Washington has declared a terrorist group and alien enemy.
Despite a judge quickly blocking the measure, Trump's administration deported more than 200 Venezuelans - 137 under the wartime act - to El Salvador where they are being detained in the country's massive anti-terrorism prison, for a year subject to renewal.
Meanwhile, families and lawyers have been seeking news about relatives and clients whom they could no longer reach, and demanding their return to Venezuela.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
