Wladimir (sometimes reported as Vladimir) Vera Villamizar (33) is from the Táchira state in Venezuela. According to his mother, Mariela Villamizar, he left Venezuela in July 2023, to go to Bogotá, Colombia to work. “He got sick in his lungs because, as he was a metalworker while he was here in San Cristóbal. He got all the tests that need to be done on a person suffering from lung disease. With treatment, he gradually improved, but the cough didn't go away. I told him not to go to Colombia because Bogotá is cold and it would affect his health, but he went anyway,” Mariela said.
About six months later, Wladimir called his mother and said he wanted to go to the United States. He left with some friends in January, 2024. “They crossed the Darién; I think the journey through the Darién also affected the illness,” Mariela said.
Wladimir arrived in at the US border in February 2024 and he made a CPB-1 entry appointment to cross into the US, but his phone broke, and he couldn't continue with the appointment. He surrendered himself to immigration authorities on February 5, 2024, Texas. He spent eight months there in prison and was released on October 22, 2024.
After being released from detention, Wladimir’s condition worsened, and he went to a hospital in Seattle. From there, his mother said, he was transferred to a larger hospital. Wladimir was hospitalized the whole month of December. Then in January Wladimir underwent a risky five-hour operation. They removed his right lung, which was damaged.
Right after his postoperative checkup, Wladimir was asked to bring documentation of his health issues to ICE, but as soon as he arrived at the ICE office, he was arrested and placed in detention. According to his mother, Wladimir still had stitches when he was arrested. There are news reports that Wladimir may have also contracted tuberculosis in Mexico, complicating his health status.
Wladimir was kept in ICE detention until mid-March. His mother remembers that he called her on March 13, 2025, to say he was being deported.
“Everyone thought they would bring them here, to Venezuela. And that wasn't the case. On Sunday afternoon, we were already hearing some news. Monday was crazy. I found out about the hundreds, two hundred and something Venezuelans who had been deported from the United States,” Mariela remembers. It was confirmed that Wladimir’s name was on the list of men that the US sent, without due process, to El Salvador.
On March 15th, 2025, less than 2 months after major lung surgery, Wladimir was taken into CECOT prison in El Salvador. The notorious prison does not provide any medical care for inmates. Conditions are unsanitary as there are 80 prisoners to a cell with only one toilet. Prisoners are treated roughly and there are reports of withholding food and beatings.
Unlike many of the families of the men sent to CECOT from the US, Wladimir’s family has not spotted him in videos or photos of the inmates. Not knowing anything about him makes Marielas’ anguish even greater. She spends her days thinking about him, waiting for news of her son.
On June 11, 2025, representatives of the men from Táchira state, Venezuela were in San Salvador to plead for Wladimir’s welfare and to ask for proof of life. They have yet to receive any news of him. Wladimir’s family and lawyers insist that he has no ties to any gang and no criminal record.