CARACAS, Venezuela-There are necessary silences, others impassable. There are silences so piercing that they cut the chest, to the point of piercing the soul. There are silences before which only the wielded word is a weapon for victory.
Iskévil Yonaiker Peñalosa Chirino knew, since he was very young, how to conquer his dreams with effort. He was a sportsman, practiced baseball, learned -together with his father- the refrigeration trade. At the age of 18 he decided to become independent and migrate to Chile, looking for new entrepreneurial paths. “He worked very hard,” says his aunt, Yasmira Margarita Chirino Rojas.
"He lasted almost five years there, and returned home. Then he decided to leave, last September, on a terrible journey, as some young Venezuelans have done: through the jungle, from country to country... until he arrived in Mexico, where he followed all the required legal processes and managed to enter the U.S. He began to work to help his little sisters, who were still in Venezuela, studying in private schools.
Yasmira Margarita thinks that her nephew's decision, beyond the economic situation in Venezuela, is due to a “trend” among the youth of the continent. They desire the life they see in Hollywood movies, and the blow of reality knocks them out, without time to defend themselves.
In search of his “American dream”, Iskévil has ended up in a nightmare. He was silenced, and today it is his people who speak for him. Since March 15, the family has not heard from him. He was filming a video when he was arrested, following President Donald Trump's order to apply the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against Venezuelan migrants.
It rains in Plaza Bolivar in Caracas. The family members have spent days of sleeplessness under the protection of the Liberator, their arms tired from holding posters with photos of their children, siblings, nephews, grandchildren, fellow countrymen and women. Many already have their voices affected: they ask, claim, demand, because “it is not about bringing our own, but all of them”.
"It was a kidnapping -assures Yasmira Margarita-. We can prove that he is a good boy, a good brother, a good son". She says that the wife of a friend of Iskevil's identified her partner in a deportation video to prison in El Salvador. Will that also be the fate of her dreamy nephew?
"President (Nayib) Bukele, who boasts of respecting human rights, how did he let himself be duped into a situation like this? They sold our Venezuelans to him, as they did in slavery," she questions.
While the people of the South American nation have been marching for several days and reinforcing the Venezuela Dignity Forever campaign, with the collection of signatures to support the return of the deported migrants, who number more than 300 who remain silent in a maximum security prison, for the only infraction of having been born in this land. Migrating is not a crime. Sanctioning a people is.
