This former Venezuelan opposition mayor fears the US will deport him to the country he fled

By Stefano Pozzebon, CNN

(CNN) — Gaby Duarte believed the United States would offer her family protection after they fled political persecution in Venezuela.

“Over there we are going to feel safe, well, we will be safe in the United States,” she recalls, breaking down in tears as she describes how her husband, Carlos García, a former Venezuelan mayor and opponent of the Maduro regime, persuaded her to move to Ohio.

That sense of safety collapsed on Friday, when García was jailed, not by Venezuelan security forces, but by US immigration authorities. He was arrested by ICE agents during a routine check of his immigration status and is now awaiting trial at Butler County Jail in Hamilton, Ohio.

In 2017, the couple fled the town they had both grown up in, the Andean mountain city of Mérida in western Venezuela, where García had served as a mayor since 2013, and went to Colombia. Five years later, they resettled in the US, while seeking political asylum.

In Venezuela, García faced up to 15 months in prison for opposing the authoritarian then President Nicolas Maduro.

Duarte fears that if he loses his case, García could be deported back to Venezuela, now led by Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodríguez.

“A deportation would put at risk his freedom and his life, as well as the life of our family,” Duarte tells her followers in an appeal video uploaded to Instagram shortly after García was detained.

Speaking to CNN, Duarte described watching two ICE agents in plain clothes enter the room where her husband was being questioned, before escorting him away in handcuffs.

“He just told me: ‘Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright…’ and then they took him away,” she says, adding that she is still trying to understand why her own interview minutes earlier ended without incident.

In a statement, ICE told CNN that Garcia was first apprehended in February 2022 upon crossing illegally into the US and was later released. The agency said García “will remain in ICE custody pending further immigration proceedings and will receive full due process.”

Duarte told CNN that they crossed the Rio Grande and voluntarily surrendered to border patrols upon arriving in the United States. Her husband presented their asylum application straight away, she claimed.The couple’s children, Carlota, 7, and Carlitos, 5, were not detained.

“They are so young, we had to tell them that daddy is going to stay a few days away, to solve a couple issues on our paperwork, but he will be back soon,” says Duarte, dreading the moment she might need to break her promise to her children and have to explain their father’s deportation to them.

Trouble at home

In Mérida, a college town known for its university and stunning mountain landscapes, García is still remembered for serving as mayor for the anti-Maduro opposition during one of the country’s most volatile political periods.

Between 2014 and 2017, tens of thousands of Venezuelans challenged Maduro’s rule in the streets, organizing peaceful marches to demand his resignation and often clashing with government forces and pro-government paramilitaries, known as colectivos.

According to human rights organization1, and an investigation by the UN2, between April and August 2017, more than 120 people were killed in political violence in Venezuela, often at the hands of Maduro’s security forces.

The Venezuelan government denies these allegations and has criticized the UN’s reports.

Mérida and the mountains around it were a hotspot of protest, a bastion of anti-government resistance and theater to some of the harshest clashes.

As mayor, García was responsible for public order, but he joined countless protests calling on Maduro to go.

On July 28, he was summoned by the government-controlled Supreme Court3 for a public audience in Caracas, the capital.

Garcia and four other mayors were accused of contempt of court for failing to enforce orders to remove barricades from the streets, after the Supreme Court accepted lawsuits filed by people who were against the protests in their municipalities.

“We were watching TV and suddenly a news reader came up with the news that the Supreme Court had called Carlos up for an audience, on August 2,” Duarte told CNN.

Fearing an escalation in the repression, they fled the same night.

“It was horrible, we had to escape in the middle of the night, just a backpack and little else to cross into Colombia, because if we had stayed, we knew what was going to happen. Thankfully, it was just us. We didn’t have children back then,” says Duarte.

Five days later, García was sentenced to 15 months of prison.

From Mérida, García and Duarte built a new life in Cúcuta, a Colombian border-city where they were able to find work and welcomed their two children, but in 2022 they no longer felt safe there, as Colombian President Gustavo Petro restored diplomatic relations with Caracas and the security situation deteriorated.

The decision to move to Cincinnati, where García’s sister Yohama was already living, was an easy one.

Even more troubles abroad

“I feel so sad and it feels so unfair that we’re going through this: we had a work permit here until 2030, we pay our taxes and our children go to a good school… we were building a life here,” says Duarte.

After traveling to the US, Duarte claims the couple were interviewed once for their asylum case and given a chance to remain in the US while their application was under review.

The Biden administration first granted temporary protection status (TPS) to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in March 2021, citing instability at home, and renewed the protection for an additional 18 months in the weeks before Trump’s second inauguration.

Cancelling TPS for Venezuelan migrants in October, the Trump administration has made deporting as many immigrants as possible a priority and has brought the issue to the Supreme Court twice, obtaining authorization to continue deportations last year.

Duarte told CNN she and her husband had Social Security numbers and were living close to Yohama, who is a permanent resident.

García had lived in the US before, when in 2011 he was selected as a young leader to participate in a State Department program on democracy and transparency, Duarte told CNN.

On Saturday, Yohama was allowed to visit García in prison. “He is fine, he is not with common prisoners and remains in good spirit,” she told CNN.

Duarte chose not to leave the house over the weekend, fearing she might encounter other federal agents and make their situation even worse.

His trial date has been set for February 10, and the family has enlisted legal representation with a local firm in Ohio.

In Venezuela, acting president Delcy Rodríguez announced Friday the creation of a “Program of Peaceful Cohabitation” to turn the page on 25 years of political conflict.

More than 800 inmates have been released since December as a gesture to support mutual understanding, interior minister Diosdado Cabello has claimed, although human rights activists such as Foro Penal, a group of lawyers who provide legal aid to political prisoners, believe the number to be much lower.

The opposition led by Nobel Prize laureate María Corina Machado has urged the US administration not to side with Rodríguez but rather to press ahead with a full transition to democracy, although, so far, the White House has opted for maintaining the status quo.

After Maduro’s ousting, deportation flights from the US to Venezuela were restored on January 16. If García was sent onto one of those, his 2017 sentence would probably flash through legal checks deportees normally go through before being released in Venezuela. Those who have pending charges against them are taken to prison on arrival.

“Arbitrary detention and torture are commonplace practices in Venezuela, where opposition voters have been victim of a policy of repression from the government,” warned Oscar Murillo, the coordinator of Caracas-based human rights organization Provea.

The Venezuelan government has continuously denied similar allegations that have arisen in the past.

“(García’s) deportation back to Venezuela would go against the non-refoulement principle: countries cannot expel people from their territory when there is reasonable reason to believe these people would risk irreparable damage, like torture or other human rights violations,” Murillo told CNN.

Back in Mérida, not many of Garcia’s political associates want to speak openly with the press. Despite the new “Cohabitation” program, coming out as an opposition activist can be dangerous, especially in the rural regions far away from Caracas where political violence is often more bitter than in the capital.

On a secure, encrypted messaging app, a former staffer who served under García in city hall shared just a few words. “We’re in shock. Here, everyone is stunned.”

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