In an attempt to show that free and fair elections are still held in Venezuela following President Nicolás Maduro’s contentious reelection in July 2024 and in spite of strong evidence to the contrary, the administration staged regional and parliamentary elections on May 25, 2025.
Given the choice between taking part and running the risk of winning without any assurance that the outcome would be accepted or abstaining and essentially giving Nicolás Maduro’s government complete control, the majority of Venezuela’s opposition called for a boycott of the country’s 2025 regional and parliamentary elections.
On May 23, 2025, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello celebrated the capture of prominent opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, who had been in hiding since July 2024 and was deemed a “terrorist” by the Venezuelan government. This was part of a new wave of forced disappearances and detentions of dissidents by the Venezuelan regime in advance of the election. Cabello declared that day that 70 lawyers, journalists, activists, and politicians had been arrested on “national security” grounds.
In an effort to humanize the regime leadership and as part of what it claims are efforts for the “protection and safe return of migrants” deported by the US, the government announced eleven days prior to the election that Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, a two-year-old who had been separated from her family by the US government, would return. This announcement coincided with the crackdown on dissent.
Nicolás Maduro is portrayed by those promoting this narrative frame—primarily the Venezuelan dictatorship and its backers, but also desperate families—as the only person who can ensure the safety of Venezuelan migrants who are the target of anti-migration measures in nations such as the US.
According to this logic, Maduro is credited with facilitating the reunion of families split up by anti-migration measures outside of Venezuela.
The Venezuelan regime has taken advantage of the hostile environment toward migrants in the United States, where the government has deported thousands of Venezuelans back to their homeland and sent over 200 migrants, including at least 50 men who had entered the country lawfully and had never broken any immigration laws, to a mega-prison in El Salvador without following the proper procedures.
About 350,000 Venezuelans with Temporal Protection Status have also been impacted by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, and they are currently searching frantically for another option after the US Supreme Court approved the program’s revocation.
This narrative frame is shared by the Venezuelan regime, which ignores the fact that the UNHCR reports that nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country as a result of gang warfare, hyperinflation, widespread violence, skyrocketing crime rates, and acute shortages of food, medicine, and basic services.
The human rights crisis, which has been well-documented by groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and “decades of disastrous economic policies — and more recently, to economic sanctions” have been blamed for the collapse of the Venezuelan economy.
When she arrived in the United States in 2024, Espinoza Bernal—now regarded as the face of the regime’s success story—was taken away from her family. According to US authorities, she was still in government custody after her parents were deported for allegedly having connections to the Tren de Aragua gang, which is based in Venezuela.
On April 25, 2025, Espinoza Bernal’s mother, Yorely Bernal, was deported to Venezuela. Around the same time, Espinoza Bernal’s father was deported as well; he is one of the men who was taken to the El Salvadorian prison.
