By Stefano Pozzebon, CNN
(CNN) — Gaby Duarte believed the United States would offer her family protection after they fled political persecution in Venezuela.
“Over there we are going to feel safe, well, we will be safe in the United States,” she recalls, breaking down in tears as she describes how her husband, Carlos García, a former Venezuelan mayor and opponent of the Maduro regime, persuaded her to move to Ohio.
That sense of safety collapsed on Friday, when García was jailed, not by Venezuelan security forces, but by US immigration authorities. He was arrested by ICE agents during a routine check of his immigration status and is now awaiting trial at Butler County Jail in Hamilton, Ohio.
In 2017, the couple fled the town they had both grown up in, the Andean mountain city of Mérida in western Venezuela, where García had served as a mayor since 2013, and went to Colombia. Five years later, they resettled in the US, while seeking political asylum.
In Venezuela, García faced up to 15 months in prison for opposing the authoritarian then President Nicolas Maduro.
Duarte fears that if he loses his case, García could be deported back to Venezuela, now led by Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodríguez.
“A deportation would put at risk his freedom and his life, as well as the life of our family,” Duarte tells her followers in an appeal video uploaded to Instagram shortly after García was detained.
Speaking to CNN, Duarte described watching two ICE agents in plain clothes enter the room where her husband was being questioned, before escorting him away in handcuffs.
“He just told me: ‘Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright…’ and then they took him away,” she says, adding that she is still trying to understand why her own interview minutes earlier ended without incident.
In a statement, ICE told CNN that Garcia was first apprehended in February 2022 upon crossing illegally into the US and was later released. The agency said García “will remain in ICE custody pending further immigration proceedings and will receive full due process.”
Duarte told CNN that they crossed the Rio Grande and voluntarily surrendered to border patrols upon arriving in the United States. Her husband presented their asylum application straight away, she claimed.The couple’s children, Carlota, 7, and Carlitos, 5, were not detained.
“They are so young, we had to tell them that daddy is going to stay a few days away, to solve a couple issues on our paperwork, but he will be back soon,” says Duarte, dreading the moment she might need to break her promise to her children and have to explain their father’s deportation to them.
Trouble at home
In Mérida, a college town known for its university and stunning mountain landscapes, García is still remembered for serving as mayor for the anti-Maduro opposition during one of the country’s most volatile political periods.
Between 2014 and 2017, tens of thousands of Venezuelans challenged Maduro’s rule in the streets, organizing peaceful marches to demand his resignation and often clashing with government forces and pro-government paramilitaries, known as colectivos.
According to human rights organization1, and an investigation by the UN2, between April and August 2017, more than 120 people were killed in political violence in Venezuela, often at the hands of Maduro’s security forces.
The Venezuelan government denies these allegations and has criticized the UN’s reports.
Mérida and the mountains around it were a hotspot of protest, a bastion of anti-government resistance and theater to some of the harshest clashes.
As mayor, García was responsible for