USA: Reports of clandestine deportation of Cape Verdeans to Cape Verde

Lisa Lopez denounces, through an email sent to Asemanaonline and to several other media, that the Embassy of Cape Verde in the United States of America has been, in recent times, mainly after the inauguration of the former Ambassador Carlos Veiga, to accept the deportation of dozens of Cape Verdeans in the US on charter flights and in a hidden way so that it is not known by Cape Verdeans and the media. In addition to considering this situation serious, the same source announces that, next week, a contingent of around 10 returnees from the USA should arrive in Cape Verde.

«About a dozen Cape Verdeans will be deported next week, some of them arrived in the United States as children and do not know any Cape Verdean reality. Many were framed by the American system itself, because they were never tried for their crimes. In most cases, they were advised by lawyers (provided by the state) to plead guilty and then sent to the immigration authorities who decide on their deportation», reads the note distributed to the press.

According to the same source, in the previous PAICV government, the Embassy of Cape Verde did not cooperate with all requests from the immigration authorities because they were aware that in some cases Cape Verdeans were being misguided by lawyers. «Carlos Veiga (the penultimate Ambassador replaced by the current one - José Luís Livramento) did not want to know about the interests of Cape Verdeans and families that will be separated forever. He also signed the SOFA agreement that allows American soldiers not to be tried by Cape Verdean justice. However, Cape Verdeans are tried in the United States, arrested and then deported to the country. They are being doubly punished», he denounced.

In the aforementioned email, Lisa Lopez asks the Government of Cape Verde why it interfered in the United States' foreign relations, collaborating with it in the apprehension of Colombian-Venezuelan Alex Saab, even putting Cape Verde's security into question. "Why don't you receive the same collaboration from the US authorities in relation to its citizens", asks the same source in the email (lisa_lopez1980@hotmail.com), distributed to various press agencies in Cape Verde.