Venezuelan child drowns in Rio Grande while escaping Maduro dictatorship

The body of a Venezuelan girl was found in the Rio Grande river between Mexico and the United States, officials reported on Tuesday.

According to a Reuters report, U.S. authorities requested assistance with finding a missing migrant youth who was reportedly wearing a red jacket, jeans and white socks.

Soon after, Mexican immigration officials found the girl floating in a stretch of river in Ciudad Acuna along the Texas border.

A growing number of migrants have drowned in recent months while trying to reach the United States and authorities have reported that the number of Venezuelans crossing Mexico en route to the U.S. increased significantly in 2021.  

Since 2014, upwards of 6 million Venezuelans have fled Nicolas Maduro’s totalitarian regime in search of a better life.

In Venezuela — where inflation hovers at around a 2,000 percent annual rate — the hunger and inability to procure basic goods brought about by a failed economy has only added to the regime’s many human rights abuses.

As millions of individuals continue to flee to neighboring countries, those who remain struggle to eat as the country continues to suffer from food shortages caused by the regime’s desperate attempts to fix the broken economy by implementing price controls and seizing private property.  

Venezuelans, however, are unable to speak out against their failed leadership, as Nicolas Maduro’s regime has continued to jail opposition voices and presently stands accused of committing crimes against humanity.

In November, the International Criminal Court prosecutor opened an investigation shortly after a U.N. fact-finding mission found that judicial authorities had been complicit in many egregious abuses.

Such abuses, including brutal forms of torture, were recently reported by ADN America and can be read about here.