US returns two-year-old girl separated from her deported parents to Venezuela

María Escalona Fernández woke up Wednesday and went out to catch the first bus from Barinas to Caracas, a nearly eight-hour journey she traveled in anticipation, almost in disbelief knowing she would be reunited with her granddaughter. Maikelys Antonella Espinosa Bernal, the two-year-old who became the latest symbol of Nicolás Maduro’s demands on Donald Trump, arrived in Venezuela in the morning. Her mother had reported her “kidnapping” the day the girl was handed over to a foster family in the United States, depriving her parents of their right to be with her.

“The rescue has finally been achieved,” the paternal grandmother told EL PAÍS, still hours away from reaching the capital, where the little girl remains. “Thank God, the girl is back home.”

Dressed in white, Maikelys arrived at the Simón Bolívar International Airport, where she was greeted by Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores, who carried her in her arms to the presidential residence, the Miraflores Palace. At the Venezuelan government headquarters, her mother, Yorely Bernal, 20, who was deported from Texas on April 25, was waiting for her. Flores herself handed the child over to her mother and maternal grandmother, who burst into tears and embraced her. Maduro, who witnessed the meeting in the background, was quick to declare that “everyone’s beloved child” had arrived. He then added: “She is the daughter and granddaughter of all of us.”

Since the little girl and her parents arrived at the border last year and surrendered to U.S. authorities, Maikelys had lived in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and was handed over to a foster family who kept her in their care the entire time. According to Fernández, for months they only heard from her through video calls the caregiver made to them in Venezuela.

The day her mother was to be deported, after being accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang, immigration officials told her they would release the girl to her so they could return to their country together. But that never happened.

For several days, relatives were unaware of her whereabouts. “We haven’t heard anything more about the baby,” her paternal grandmother told El PAÍS earlier this month. “We don’t know how she is, where she is, or who she is with.” Amid the family’s clamor to bring Maikelys back, the Venezuelan government capitalized on a cause that became one of the many faces of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crusade.

On state television, Maduro reiterated that “the girl’s parental authority” rested exclusively with her biological mother. He demanded that the Trump administration return her: “The U.S. government has only one course of action: recognize the mother’s right to parental authority, to have her legitimate daughter, and return her immediately.” He also warned that Venezuela was “prepared to go search for Maikelys wherever necessary.” The Supreme Court of Justice also issued a preventive measure for family reunification demanding her return in a “safe and healthy” manner.

After Caracas accused Washington of “stealing” Venezuelan children, U.S. authorities claimed that the girl’s father, 24-year-old Maiker Espinosa, was a “lieutenant” of the Tren de Aragua, which is why he was sent along with 237 other Venezuelans to the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) in El Salvador. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also insisted that the mother was engaged in “recruiting young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.”

According to DHS, the decision to take the girl into its custody was based on a matter of “safety and well-being.” “We will not allow this child to be abused and continue to be exposed to criminal activity that endangers her safety,” it said in a statement.

That contrasts with the image from Wednesday. Maikelys did not arrive alone in Caracas, but as part of a group of more than 220 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States, on one of those flights that Maduro previously refused to accept, but has once again acceded to since Trump’s return to the White House. The Venezuelan president even thanked the Republican for the return of the little girl, which he described as “a profoundly humane act,” and left the way open for possible negotiations with the Trump administration.

“There have been and there will be differences, but it’s possible with God’s blessing to move forward,” he said. Maduro also stated that he hopes to “very soon” secure the release of Maikelys’ father and the 253 Venezuelans who have been held in President Nayib Bukele’s mega-prison since March.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition