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In the middle of the Maiquetía airport, surrounded by police and military officials, Diosdado Cabello has received flights of returned migrants, while condemning the deportation and imprisonment of 238 Venezuelans to the Confinement Center for Terrorists in El Salvador. In front of cameras he has shown himself as “a savior” and a compassionate person who hugs, takes pictures and gives advice to those who return to the country from the United States, in the context of a wave of deportations promoted by the government of Donald Trump. However, less than a year ago her discourse was different; instead of asking for the release of Venezuelans, from institutional, police and other accounts related to the government, the persecution of dissidents was openly promoted through social networks with Operation Tuntun. A strategy by which thousands of citizens were persecuted and imprisoned in what is considered the biggest repressive wave in the country in recent times.
The staging of the now also Minister of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace on the issue of migrants responds to the construction of a narrative planned and promoted by the government, in which the usual propaganda and disinformation gear was activated once again, which has found in social networks an ideal scenario to amplify its narratives with the intention of manipulating public opinion. The same mechanism, with the same actors, was used to promote “Operation TunTun” after the presidential elections of July 28, 2024.
Through a tracking on social networks such as X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, at ProBox we found that at least 79 accounts that recently amplified the officialist narrative of defending migrants, previously also promoted the detention and persecution of Venezuelans who did not recognize Nicolás Maduro as president of the Republic.
In this way, those who act as executioners in Venezuela, now try to present themselves as defenders of human rights of citizens, taking advantage of one of the most aggressive U.S. immigration policies to wash their image. They went from imprisoning and sowing terror among Venezuelans to creating committees in defense of migrants detained in El Salvador.
From Operation TunTun to the Plan Return to the Homeland
Our cross-checking reveals that at least 79 accounts that replicated the oficialista discourse on migration also promoted repression after the July 28 elections. Of these, 58 directly supported Operation TunTun, 18 promoted the use of VenApp for doxxing citizens, and 3 participated in both narratives.
Among the accounts that promoted both speeches are: Diosdado Cabello’s account, agencies such as the Araure mayor’s office, the office of the Presidency of Venezuela, the Amazonas governor’s office, the Monagas governor’s office, and media aligned with the ruling party such as VTV, Telesur, Globovisión, La Iguana TV and Aporrea; all of them mainly on X and Facebook.
In addition, this campaign was also actively promoted on TikTok. The search for tags and words most used by the ruling party such as “#BukeleCachorritoYLacayo”, “#MigrantesVenezolanos”, “#RepatriaciónVenezolana”, “migrantes venezolanos en peligro”, “retorno de migrantes”, among others; yielded at least 183 videos on the subject, 129 of them with narratives linked to the Venezuelan ruling party.
Online campaign as “migrant protector”
Diosdado Cabello has tried to project himself as a savior of migrants returning to Venezuela, using his program “Con el Mazo Dando” to push narratives and trends on the issue.
On March 19, the #BukeleCachorritoYLacayo trend was promoted on X via the state channel (VTV), generating at least 8,790 posts according to our records. The campaign was replicated on Instagram by accounts linked to the CICPC, which shared images of Cabello receiving migrant flights and reinforcing the narrative of protecting them. At the same time, they rejected the agreements between the US and El Salvador to deport Venezuelans, directly labeling the program in their posts.
We also identified publications about the Plan Vuelta a la Patria promoted by the government on TikTok, X, Instagram, and Facebook that reinforced the image of Diosdado Cabello and the regime “rescuing” Venezuelan migrants, being a narrative that was found in about 273 publications of the more than 6 thousand identified by ProBox in the search for keywords and tags used to promote the narrative of rescuing migrants and rejection of U.S. immigration policies.
When analyzing the phrase “Venezuelan migrants” in our sample, we identified at least 94 publications coming from the Con el Mazo Dando program on social networks: 48 on Facebook, 33 on Instagram and 13 on TikTok. This makes sense considering that Cabello has become an active promoter of the official narrative on migrants.
Additionally, of the 183 videos on the subject of Venezuelan migration that we identified in TikTok, at least 50 are also directly linked to Cabello, highlighting his role in the Plan Vuelta a la Patria and his messages from Con el Mazo Dando. These contents emphasize the return of migrants, especially children, with phrases such as “they will always be received with love and respect”, reinforcing an image of a protective and paternalistic State.
Maduro and Rodriguez brothers also sell themselves as saviors
Nicolás Maduro is also promoted as a “defender” of migrants and, as with Cabello, coordinated behavior was used to push this narrative with acts carried out in favor of migrants; especially on Instagram, where we found at least 10 publications that use the exact same text to accompany their images, including a publication of “Con el Mazo Dando” and two publications of CICPC accounts that identically replicate the content.
“From Nueva Granada Avenue, in Caracas, Franklin Castillo assured that he went out to march for love and in defense of the patriots who have been kidnapped in El Salvador”, reads the IG publication. “… he asked fathers, mothers, siblings, children of the migrants to trust President Nicolás Maduro because he will do everything possible to bring them back“, continues the copy of the post promoted in a coordinated manner.
In addition to this activity on Instagram, proxy media accounts aligned to the government (media that appear to be independent and operate for their own interests, but in reality are influenced, financed or controlled by a government to disseminate messages and shape public opinion in its favor), in a propaganda campaign that sought to disseminate a positive image of Maduro before the visit to the Miraflores Palace of relatives of Venezuelans transferred to El Salvador; trying to draw a compassionate government and replicating the image of Maduro hugging the mother of one of the detainees in that country, emphasizing that these Venezuelans “are kidnapped”.
These include: Globovisión, El Universal, Diario Panorama, Noticias Calabozo, El Foco, EsConUsted.Com, Noticias Cada Día, Mérida Es Noticia, and CNT Noticias.
The participation of the Rodriguez brothers in the topic focused on the creation of the “Committee of Relatives and Victims of Migrants Kidnapped in El Salvador”. Jorge Rodríguez made the announcement, which was disseminated on instagram by proxy media such as Globovisión, El Universal, Diario Panorama, Noticias Calabozo, El Foco, EsConUsted.Com, Noticias Cada Día, Mérida Es Noticia, and CNT Noticias. There were also publications highlighting Delcy Rodríguez as promoter of the committee, with mentions in X as this one in Primicias 24 and a video in TikTok in the account TV FANB
The promotion of the comitedefensamigrantes.gob.ve page was linked to the figure of Jorge Rodriguez, on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, with publications in which Rodriguez is quoted promoting the use of the platform for Venezuelan migrants in the United States to register, make complaints, share testimonies and coordinate actions with the Venezuelan State for their return to the country.
Venezuela’s blocked network used by chavismo to talk about migrants
Although the ruling party blocked X’s social network, its digital troops have not abandoned the platform and the proof of this is that a large part of the propaganda campaign using the deported migrants was developed on this social network.
One of our searches included a series of tags that these groups have been using on social networks to drive this conversation and some keywords such as: #ComandoHugoChavez, #BukeleCachorritoYLacayo, #DeportenAEstosHDP, #MigrarNoEsDelito, #BukeleTeEquivocaste, #BukeleTúNoEresElSalvador, #InfluencersComplices, “comité de defensa de los migrantes venezolanos”, “migrantesven”, “comité familiares familiares víctimas migrantes secuestrados”, “migrantes.com.ve”, among others.
The results show that 58% of the conversation (3,684 mentions) took place on X, followed by Instagram with 28.94% (1,838 mentions), TikTok with 10.56% (671), and finally Facebook with 2.50% (159).
In a search for terms such as #CoyotesLesSaleTuntun, kidnapped migrants, repatriated, #VueltaALPatria, Conviasa, #MCMDelincuente, CICPC migrants, GNB migrants, CICPC connacionales, mistreatment against conationals, Operation TunTun, ZODI migrants, ZODI connacionales, GNB connacionales, among others; the result was similar: the conversation developed overwhelmingly in X with 68.8% of the mentions. It was followed by Instagram (23.9%), TikTok (4.9%) and Facebook (2.4%).
This confirms that X continues to be the key space for political and public opinion narratives in Venezuela despite being blocked in the country since August 2024.
International media allied with Maduro amplify this narrative to global audiences
Not only the national spokespersons of the Maduro government amplified narratives around the deportations of Venezuelan migrants, the international media aligned with Chavismo echoed the information and served as replicators of a narrative that accuses the Bukele government and creates the sensation of the figure of Maduro and Diosdado as saviors of migrants.
The search for “kidnapped Venezuelan migrants” and “deported Venezuelan migrants” highlighted media outlets such as Telesur, Venezolana de Televisión, Venezuela News and the Russian media RT, Sputnik Mundo; as well as the Chinese media Xinhua and CGTN.
Telesur raised the flag as the dominant media in the digital scene to amplify a pro-government narrative.
The top 5 was divided as follows:
Telesur: dominated the digital scene with 473 mentions in social networks and on its website, standing out especially in TikTok with 387 mentions through the viralization of audiovisual content videos, followed by its presence in web portals (74 mentions) and some activity on Instagram (10 mentions)
Venezolana de Televisión (VTV): Although it is a national media, its international reach is broad as it is replicated by other aligned media. It was the second media outlet with the greatest presence, accumulating 114 mentions. Like Telesur, its activity was mainly concentrated on TikTok (75 mentions), with complementary presence on Facebook (19 mentions) and Instagram (17 mentions), in addition to a few on its website (3 mentions), suggesting a hybrid strategy that combines emerging platforms with already consolidated social networks.
3. Venezuela News Agency: It reached 30 mentions, with a strong focus on Instagram (28 mentions) and minimal activity on its website (2 mentions). This reflects a strategy focused almost exclusively on institutional or promotional visual content on social networks.
4. Extranewsmundo: this pseudo media accumulated 13 mentions, distributed among its X account (8 mentions), its website (3 mentions) and Instagram (2 mentions). Its presence is divided between visual and news channels, with a more dynamic and conversational approach thanks to its activity on Twitter.
5. China Xinhua Español: this media closes the top 5 with 12 mentions, all of them concentrated in X, which shows a very specific strategy focused exclusively on that network. They focused their coverage on the situation of Venezuelans deported from the United States.
The Russian media Sputnik Mundo is not among the top five but also participated in this conversation with a total of 5 mentions in which it addressed the Venezuelan migration crisis focusing on the stigmatization of detained migrants, stressing that they are being portrayed as criminals; as did CGTN (China) also with 5 mentions reproducing a narrative similar to that of Xinhua, with emphasis on the deportation from the US and denouncing abuses, although without explicitly referring to . the US the Venezuelan government‘s actions before the UNThe same is true of CGTN (China), also with 5 mentions that reproduce a similar narrative to Xinhua, with emphasis on the deportation from and the denunciation of abuses, although without explicitly referring to the actions of the Venezuelan government before the UN.
Finally, the Russian media RT also had 5 significant mentions, covering the deportation of Venezuelans from both the U.S. and El Salvador, but with greater visibility of political figures such as Diosdado Cabello. Its publications tend to align closely with the narratives promoted by the Venezuelan national media, reinforcing discourses of sovereignty, defense of human rights and denunciation of the systematic criminalization of migrants.
What is the true reality of Venezuelan migrants? From persecuted to propaganda pieces
Venezuela is experiencing one of the largest migration crises in the world, with more than 7.7 million people having left the country in the last 15 years, according to UNHCR. Most of these people have done so fleeing political repression, economic collapse and the humanitarian emergency provoked by the same government that now pretends to be their protector.
For years, the government has despised, criminalized and stigmatized those who emigrate. Returnees in pandemic were treated as health threats and victims of verbal abuse by high-ranking officials, such as Tarek William Saab and Iris Varela. Today, that same State is trying to wash its face, appropriating the suffering of migrants to promote a narrative of redemption for those who sought opportunities outside the country and did not succeed.
But behind this new facade there are painful stories that do not fit the official script. Testimonies collected by media outlets such as Efecto Cocuyo, El Pitazo and La Vida de Nos reveal a very different reality: dozens of Venezuelans have been deported from the United States to El Salvador and sent to CECOT – a maximum security prison – under unfounded accusations of gang links, based solely on their tattoos or physical appearance.
Many of them, such as Jerce Reyes Barrios, Jhon Williams Chacín or Arturo Suárez Trejo, had fled Venezuela after being persecuted, detained or tortured for demonstrating against the government. Others, such as Anyelo Sarabia, Gustavo Aguilera or Franco Caraballo, were working legally or awaiting immigration hearings in the U.S. when they were arrested and deported unjustly, without evidence, and then exhibited as criminals.
These Venezuelans have not only been victims of unjust migration systems abroad, but have also been used by the Venezuelan government as propaganda tools. While relatives demand proof of life and denounce mistreatment, the government promotes campaigns showing Maduro and Diosdado Cabello as “defenders of migrants”, when in many cases, these same young people had already known the repression of the Venezuelan State before migrating.
The government not only denies the structural causes that forced millions to flee, but also tries to turn their stories of pain into narratives in its favor. The same executioners who persecuted, tortured and pushed these citizens into exile, today present themselves as saviors. This is the real mission behind the narrative: to use the lives of migrants as a political banner, without taking any responsibility for what forced them to leave.
This is the first installment of the #MisiónHipocresía series in which we address how Venezuelan officialdom is using the migration crisis as a new engine of political propaganda. For more information follow us at @ProBoxVE
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