What Migrant Crisis? Maduro Regime Tells U.N. 60% of Venezuelans Have Come Home

Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Faría addressed the United Nations on Saturday to read an “open letter to humanity” signed by socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro in which he claimed that 60 percent of the Venezuelan migrants that have fled from his authoritarian socialist regime have “returned.”

The letter referred to the sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries on the rogue South American regime as “crimes against humanity.”

Venezuela’s dictator, who currently occupies a seat in the U.N. Human Rights Council, has been clinging to power illegitimately since carrying out sham elections in 2018. The United Nations itself recently accused the socialist regime of committing crimes against humanity through its intelligence and military apparatus to curb dissent and political opponents in the country. In spite of that, the United Nations opted to grant a platform to Nicolás Maduro in favor of Juan Guaidó, Venezuela’s legitimate yet useless president.

In Maduro’s signed missive, read by Faría, the socialist dictator opens by denouncing a “global discrediting and stigmatization campaign” against his regime’s “Bolivarian Socialism.” Maduro also claimed that his regime had been “falsely accused” of being a dictatorship despite the 29 “free and fair elections” carried out throughout 23 years of socialist rule.

The Venezuelan dictator, through his foreign affairs minister, claimed that the sanctions imposed upon his regime were the true crimes against humanity.

“These [Sanctions] have translated into suffering, deprivation and systematic aggression that restrict life and the collective rights of my country, so we do not hesitate to denounce these cruel measures as crimes against humanity,” the letter read.

Maduro also blamed the sanctions for the ongoing Venezuelan migrant crisis that he later denied existing, arguing that “the induced migration that they flaunt in the media for political and propaganda purposes” was “promoted with false promises and a blockade of their living conditions.”

The letter also claimed that, according to the Maduro regime, 60 percent of the Venezuelan migrants have “voluntarily returned” to Venezuela — despite no evidence that substantiates such an assertion.

In reality, nearly seven million Venezuelans have fled from the Maduro regime. The Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (R4V) estimates that by August 2022, a total of 6,805,209 Venezuelan citizens have fled from Venezuela and its socialist regime — representing approximately 22 percent of Venezuela’s estimated 30 million population. The Venezuelan migrant crisis has surpassed Syria’s in numbers and is only rivaled by Ukraine’s crisis as a result of Russia’s invasion of the European country, despite no war having taken place in Venezuela.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more than 130,000 Venezuelan migrants entered the United States illegally between October 2021 and July 2022. Venezuelan migrants illegally crossing the U.S. border have become the second-largest nationality after Mexicans as of September 2022.

Much like the Castro regime, the Venezuelan representative demanded the United Kingdom “return” the Falkland islands to Argentina, while expressing the socialist regime’s support of other authoritarian regimes throughout the world such as Iran, Nicaragua, and Cuba. Maduro also rejected condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming that Russia is the victim of a “hate campaign.” Maduro has openly expressed his support for the invasion in the past. The letter also endorsed Mexico’s proposal to establish an international caucus to seek out a peaceful solution between the countries.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.