The Venezuelan 2-year-old who was kept in U.S. government custody after her parents were deported has been returned to Venezuela.
In a video posted to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s YouTube page, Maduro is seen greeting the toddler upon the toddler’s return.
The toddler, Maikelys Antonella Espinoza, is seen in the video being carried by Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores before being handed over to the toddler’s mother, Yorley Inciarte, who had been deported two weeks ago from the United States.
Espinoza’s return comes after Maduro and other Venezuelan government officials accused the Trump administration of kidnapping the 2-year old.
Last month, the Department of Homeland Security labeled Inciarte and her partner Maiker Espinoza Escalona as “Tren de Aragua parents,” alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan criminal gang.
Escalona was sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8 authorities. Inciarte was deported two weeks ago to Venezuela without her daughter.
Maiker Escalona and his family were separated after entering the U.S. in 2024.
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“The child’s father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house,” DHS said in a statement. “The child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte, oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.”
“Everything is false,” Inciarte told ABC News in an interview last week. “Here I am waiting for the evidence they have because if they are accusing me, it’s because they have proof of what they are saying — but here I am waiting.”
Inciarte was separated from her partner and daughter after they entered the U.S. last year and surrendered to authorities. After being held in a detention center for several months in Texas, Inciarte asked for a deportation order so she could be reunited with their child, who is not a U.S. citizen, one of their attorneys told ABC News.
But Inciarte ended up being deported without her daughter, who DHS said remained in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“When my partner and my daughter arrive here, the only thing I [will] think about is staying here in my country,” Inciarte told ABC News last week. “Because the only one who supported me and fought alongside me was my country, no one else.”