Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, a long-suspected drug lord actively wanted by U.S. authorities, on Wednesday evening accused Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele of being an “imperial puppy and lackey.”
Cabello’s vitriol comes in response to the U.S. deporting 238 Venezuelans suspected of being members of Tren de Aragua into El Salvador.
Cabello, during the latest broadcast of his weekly socialist talk show Hitting with the Mallet, issued a barrage of accusations against the Salvadoran president. Cabello described Bukele as a “fascist, a creep, and a flatterer of the gringos” and claimed that Bukele is creating “concentration camps” for “mostly Venezuelan” migrants.
“You have to be very, very creepy to do what Bukele does,” Cabello said. “I call him so, this is not new — since he received the presidency I have said that he is a fascist, since he appeared in politics, and what I do is to confirm it now.”
Bukele has not publicly commented on Cabello’s accusations at the time of this writing.
Throughout the week, socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and several members of the Venezuelan regime’s top brass have condemned President Donald Trump over his use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport to El Salvador 238 Venezuelans suspected of being members of the Tren de Aragua terrorist organization as per the terms of a U.S. agreement signed with Bukele.
The Maduro regime’s official responses to the deportation of the Venezuelan illegal migrants have included a statement comparing the deportations to “slavery” and “Nazi concentration camps,” Maduro publicly vowing to “rescue” the migrants “kidnapped” by Bukele, and the opening of a website that allows individuals to denounce the “unjust deportations” of Venezuelan illegal migrants from the U.S., among other local campaigns and events.
As is customary of Cabello and his socialist talk show, the Venezuelan Interior Minister “dedicated” a Twitter hashtag to Bukele that translates to “Bukele Puppy and Lackey” to condemn the Salvadoran president over the deportation of the Venezuelan migrants into his country.
Despite the fact that the Maduro regime banned Twitter from Venezuela in August, Cabello launches new hashtag campaigns on the social media platform every week during the broadcasts of his show to accuse, criticize, or ridicule “enemies” of the Venezuelan socialist regime.
Cabello, without presenting proof to substantiate his claims, accused Bukele of allegedly charging $2,000 per each “kidnapped” Venezuelan sent to El Salvador. Cabello threatened Bukele with “justice in the future” for his actions.
“They [the United States] pay him 6 million dollars, they paid him right now, but he also charges two thousand dollars for each Venezuelan kidnapped,” Cabello said. “Bukele is a kidnapper, he has kidnapped Venezuelans and for them he collects a reward and the world says nothing.”
“The great thing is that we know these characters, and you will see Bukele sooner rather than later in the hands of the U.S. justice. They are going to charge him,” he continued.
The Venezuelan Interior Minister condemned the United States for allegedly subjecting Venezuelan migrants to “harassment, humiliation, mistreatment, persecution with absolutely no respect for anything.” According to Cabello, Venezuelans who have called for human rights sanctions against the Maduro regime also engage in the alleged “humiliation” of Venezuelan migrants.
“American dream? There is no American dream. No, no, no, no, that is not true. What happens is that they always accuse us of not wanting the United States,” Cabello said. “No, we have nothing against the United States, nor against the people of the United States, much less the people of the United States. Against imperialism, yes. We will be rebels, we will rise up.”
“Today a group of Venezuelans is being subjected to humiliation, humiliation, one could say it, right? To mistreatment, to persecution, they respect absolutely nothing,” he continued. “There in the United States, here in Venezuela they have their counterpart. There are those who asked for sanctions, asked for the blockade, asked for persecutions.”
Cabello further accused the Venezuelan opposition of furthering the “narrative” that the Maduro regime sent people to other countries to become an “armed wing of the Bolivarian Revolution.”
“The narrative was made to put Venezuelan men and women in the mouth of the whole world. It is being reversed and will be reversed, you can be sure of that,” Cabello said.
Shortly before the start of Cabello’s talk show, dictator Nicolás Maduro announced the creation of a “Committee of Relatives of Venezuelans Kidnapped in Concentration Camps in El Salvador.” According to Maduro, the group has contacted “important law firms and human rights defenders” in El Salvador to achieve the release of the 238 Venezuelan deportees.
“This committee will act on the legal side while we act on the diplomatic side, to achieve the goal of freeing these young boys,” Maduro said, calling for Salvadorans and the nation’s Supreme Court to take action to make President Bukele understand that he is “committing an illegality that violates human rights.”
“Supreme Court of Justice of El Salvador, magistrates, for the love of God, in the name of Oscar Arnulfo Romero, I ask for justice,” Maduro continued. “These boys have not committed crimes in El Salvador and must be released and quickly handed over to their families in Venezuela.”
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