The Trump administration has deported a former Venezuelan colonel under the Nicolás Maduro regime who had a pending U.S. lawsuit for alleged abuses in his home country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Rafael José Quero Silva was sent back to Venezuela Aug. 18 after an immigration judge ordered his removal.
Quero Silva is a “known human rights violator” who participated in the detention and torture of political dissenters while working under Maduro, ICE officials said. He also has been accused of spearheading a violent crackdown on protests against the Venezuelan government.
ICE officers first arrested Quero Silva, a Venezuelan citizen, Feb. 27, 2025, in Miramar, Fla., in southern Broward County.
Quero Silva arrived in the United States in June 2016 at Miami International Airport, but he “failed to depart in accordance with the terms of his admission,” the agency said in news release.
Quero Silva had applied for asylum in the United States, but was found ineligible because he had been a national guard member, the Miami Herald reported.
ICE officials praised the collaboration of several federal agencies in Miami, including ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, for his detention and deportation.
ICE removed Rafael José Quero Silva, a human rights violator who took part in torturing political dissidents during the Maduro regime, to Venezuela.
Quero Silva served as a colonel in the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela commanding the 47th Detachment in the city of… pic.twitter.com/Eibl2GTSei
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) September 2, 2026
“ICE officers continue to remove human rights violators to their home countries,” said ERO Miami Field Office Director Matthew Elliston. “We are committed to public safety and national security, and to ensuring the United States does not become a safe haven for individuals who participated in persecution, torture or other serious human rights abuses.”
According to the agency, prior to living the United States, Quero Silva served as a colonel in the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela, known as the GNB.
Quero Silva commanded the 47th Detachment in Barquisimeto, a city in central-western Venezuela, and had direct involvement in suppressing opposition to Maduro’s regime through human rights violations.
“He was involved in, and had knowledge of, the excessive use of force, detention and torture of anti-Maduro protesters by GNB members under his command,” ICE officials said.
Maduro was captured by U.S. special forces in January and has been accused of deep corruption, narco-terrorism and violent political repression during his rule in Venezuela.
In 2013, Quero Silva directly oversaw the torture of at least 74 peaceful demonstrators. The captured political protesters endured electric shocks, severe beatings with nightsticks and frozen water bottles, threats of rape, and other physical, psychological and sexual abuse, ICE officials said.
Five Venezuelans who protested after Hugo Chavez’s death and the election of Maduro over a decade ago recently filed a lawsuit against Quero Silva in Miami federal court, the Miami Herald reported.
They allege that Quero Silva oversaw their torture or directed his underlings to do so while he was a top official in the GNB, a military force tasked with internal security.
The plaintiffs, now living in the United States, filed suit under the Torture Victim Protection Act in December 2025. They reportedly discovered that Quero Silva was in the U.S. after he appeared as an extra in a Spanish-language soap opera in 2018.
“He used his authority to orchestrate a violent crackdown on political dissent, targeting Venezuelan civilians who protested the contentious election of Nicolás Maduro in 2013 or who opposed the Venezuelan government,” the lawsuit states.
U.S. District Judge Michael Moore, a Bush appointee, is presiding over the case. Quero Silva filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit earlier this year, and it is unclear what will happen now that he has been deported.
Quero Silva is among several South Florida residents with ties to the Cuban and Venezuelan governments who have removed or detained as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown, per the Herald.
In April 2025, ICE arrested a former Cuban official, 57-year-old Daniel Morejon Garcia, after he failed to disclose he worked for the government and was a member of Cuba’s communist party.
ICE also detained Adys Lastres Morera, the sister of the official in charge of GAESA, the military conglomerate that runs most of Cuba’s economy.
HSI Miami Special Agent in Charge Jose R. Figueroa said Quero Silva’s removal represents the agency’s efforts to “hold accountable human rights violators who seek refuge in the United States.”
“This case reflects our unwavering commitment to protecting the integrity of our immigration system and ensuring that individuals who participated in persecution or torture cannot evade justice,” Figueroa said.
Since 2003, ICE has arrested more than 520 people for human rights-related violations of law under various criminal and immigration statutes.
In addition, the agency has pursued deportation orders and removed 1,178 known or suspected human rights violators and facilitated the departures of an additional 208 from the United States.
