Gaby Duarte believed the United States would protect her family who fled political persecution in Venezuela.
“We would feel safe there, well, we would feel safe in the United States,” she recalled, tearfully recounting how her husband Carlos Garcia, a former Venezuelan mayor and opponent of the Maduro regime, persuaded her to move to Ohio.
That sense of security was shattered Friday when Mr. Garcia was jailed by U.S. immigration authorities rather than Venezuelan security forces. He was arrested by ICE agents during a routine immigration check and is currently awaiting trial at the Butler County Jail in Hamilton, Ohio.
In 2017, the couple fled their hometown of Mérida, a city in the Andes Mountains in western Venezuela, where García had been mayor since 2013, and headed to Colombia. Five years later, they resettled in the United States seeking political asylum.
In Venezuela, Garcia could have faced up to 15 months in prison for opposing then-authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.
Mr. Duarte fears that if he loses his case, Mr. Garcia could be deported to Venezuela, which is currently headed by Mr. Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez.
“Deportation would put his freedom and life at risk, as well as the lives of our family,” Duarte told his followers in an appeal video uploaded to Instagram shortly after Garcia was detained.
In an interview with CNN, Duarte said she watched two plainclothes ICE agents enter the room where her husband was being interrogated and then be led away in handcuffs.
“He just said to me, ‘Don’t worry, everything will be fine…’ and they took him away,” she said, adding that she was still trying to understand why her own interview had gone off without a hitch a few minutes earlier.
In a statement, ICE told CNN that Garcia was first arrested in February 2022 when he entered the United States illegally and was later released. The agency said Garcia “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 Patrol upon arrival in the United States. She claimed that her husband immediately filed an asylum application, but the couple’s children, Carlota, 7, and Carlitos, 5, were not detained.
“Since they are young, I had to tell them that daddy is going to stay away for a few days to resolve some issues with the paperwork, but he will be back soon,” said Duarte, who fears the moment will come when he will have to break his promise to his children and explain to them about their father’s deportation.
In Mérida, a university town known for its universities and stunning mountain scenery, García remains remembered for his role as mayor of the anti-Maduro opposition during one of the country’s most politically unstable periods.
From 2014 to 2017, tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest President Maduro’s rule and organize peaceful marches to demand his resignation, often clashing with government forces and pro-government militias known as colectivos.
According to research by human rights organizations1 and the United Nations,2 more than 120 people were killed in political violence in Venezuela between April and August 2017, many by Maduro’s security forces.
The Venezuelan government denies these allegations and criticizes the UN report.
Mérida and its surrounding mountains have been a battleground for protests, a stronghold of anti-government resistance, and the scene of some of the heaviest clashes.
As mayor, García was responsible for public security and participated in countless protests calling for Maduro’s resignation.
On July 28, he was summoned to the government’s Supreme Court 3 for a general audience in the capital, Caracas.
Mayor Garcia and four other mayors were charged with contempt of court for failing to enforce an order to remove barricades from the streets after the Supreme Court accepted a lawsuit filed by opponents of the protests in the municipality.
“We were watching TV and suddenly a news reader came up with the news that the Supreme Court was convening Carlos on August 2,” Duarte told CNN.
Fearing further repression, they fled that night.
“It was the worst. We had to escape in the middle of the night. We had to cross into Colombia with our backpacks and little else, because we knew what would happen if we stayed here. Thankfully, it was just us. We didn’t have children at the time,” says Duarte.
Five days later, Garcia was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
García and Duarte, originally from Merida, built a new life in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta, where they were able to find work and adopted two children, but they no longer felt safe there after Colombian President Gustavo Petro restored diplomatic relations with Caracas in 2022 and the security situation worsened.
The decision to move to Cincinnati, where Garcia’s sister Johama already lived, was easy.
“It’s very sad and it feels very unfair that we’re going through this. We had work permits here until 2030, we paid taxes, our children went to good schools…We were building a life here,” Duarte said.
Duarte claims that after arriving in the United States, the couple was interviewed once for asylum and given the opportunity to remain in the United States while their claim was reviewed.
The Biden administration first granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in March 2021, citing instability in the country, and renewed the protection for another 18 months in the weeks before Trump’s second inauguration.
Although it canceled TPS for Venezuelan migrants in October, the Trump administration has made it a priority to deport as many migrants as possible, taking the issue to the Supreme Court twice and winning permission to continue deportations last year.
Duarte told CNN that the couple had social security numbers and lived near Yohama, who is a permanent resident.
Garcia previously lived in the United States and was selected as a young leader to participate in the State Department’s Program on Democracy and Transparency in 2011, Duarte told CNN.
On Saturday, Mr. Yohama was allowed to visit Mr. Garcia in prison. “He’s fine. He’s not with the general prison population and he remains fine,” she told CNN.
Duarte decided not to leave her house over the weekend for fear of encountering other federal agents and making the situation worse.
His trial date is set for February 10th, and his family has requested legal representation from a local company in Ohio.
In Venezuela, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced on Friday the creation of a “peaceful cohabitation program” to end 25 years of political conflict.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello claimed more than 800 prisoners had been released since December in a gesture of support for mutual understanding, but human rights activists such as Foro Penal, a legal group that provides legal aid to political prisoners, believe the number is much lower.
Opposition parties led by Nobel laureate Maria Colina Machado have called on the U.S. government to move forward with a full transition to democracy rather than side with Rodriguez, but so far the White House has chosen to maintain the status quo.
Deportation flights from the United States to Venezuela resumed on January 16 after Maduro’s ouster. If Mr. García is sent to one of them, his 2017 sentence would likely pass the legal checks that deportees typically undergo before being released in Venezuela. Those facing charges will be taken to jail upon arrival.
“Arbitrary detention and torture are common in Venezuela, and opposition voters are victims of the government’s repressive policies,” Oscar Murillo, coordinator of the Caracas-based human rights group Provea, warned.
The Venezuelan government has continued to deny similar allegations that have arisen in the past.
“Forcibly returning[Garcia]to Venezuela would violate the principle of non-refoulement. States cannot expel people from their territory if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are at risk of irreparable harm, including torture or other human rights violations,” Murillo told CNN.
Back in Mérida, many of Mr. García’s political associates are reluctant to speak openly with the press. Despite new “co-living” programs, coming out as an opposition activist can be risky, especially in rural areas far from Caracas where political violence is more intense than in the capital.
A former City Hall employee who worked under Mr. Garcia shared just a few words on a secure, encrypted messaging app. “We’re shocked. Everyone here is surprised.”
