Venezuela minister says no Tren de Aragua members among US deportees

By Vivian Sequera

CARACAS (Reuters) -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.

Venezuela says Tren de Aragua was effectively wiped out in 2023, and that the idea that it still exists is based on a claim from the country's political opposition.

"It is a lie, a massive lie, and we have the means to prove it," Cabello added. "Now if the United States refuses to recognize this reality, that's their prerogative."

The gang, which began in a prison in Venezuela's Aragua state and is accused of sex trafficking, contract killings and other crimes, spread outside its home country including to the U.S. over the last decade during a migrant exodus from Venezuela, according to U.S. authorities and media reports.

Trump's administration is facing a March 25 deadline to respond to a judicial request for more details on the deportations. A U.S. judge had ordered the plane carrying the deportees turn around.

Cabello said that of 920 migrants returned via five flights since February, only 16 have ongoing judicial processes in Venezuela.

Caracas and Washington have clashed over deportation flights. The U.S. said on Thursday that Venezuela lied in saying that a flight of deportees was repatriated via Mexico. Meanwhile, a Venezuelan lawmaker has accused Washington of blocking direct repatriation flights from the U.S. to Venezuela, which Caracas is ready to resume.

Separately on Friday, Canada's government announced sanctions against eight senior officials in Venezuela's government, citing human rights violations and undermining democracy.

Caracas blasted the sanctions as "ridiculous" and said Canada issued them to "ingratiate itself with the designs of Washington."

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Cynthia Osterman)