The first flight carrying 199 migrants from Venezuela from the US landed on Monday.
ADVERTISEMENTA flight carrying 199 Venezuelan migrants landed Maiquetía early on Monday, the country’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told state-run Venezuelan TV.
The group arrived on plane from Honduras after they were deported from the US.
“199 compatriots, 199 Venezuelan colleagues returning to their homeland,” were on board, Cabello told VTV.
The flight is the first since Venezuelan and US officials struck a deal to resume repatriation flights on Saturday, following a two-week long stand off after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro suspended flights.
Maduro refused to receive flights from the US carrying deported migrants after US President Donald Trump announced he would withdraw Chevron’s license to export Venezuelan oil.
The Venezuelan leader said the decision “affected” flights to Venezuela, prompting members of the Trump administration to threaten further sanctions on the country.
Venezuelan officials confirmed on Saturday that a deal between the pair had been reached.
“We have agreed with the US government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with an initial flight tomorrow, Sunday, March 23,” Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Venezuela’s Assembly, posted on social media.
In his statement, Rodríguez also referred to the deportation by the Trump administration of some 250 Venezuelans to a high-security prison in El Salvador.
Trump has accused, without providing evidence, those migrants of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang — a designated US foreign terrorist organisation.
“Migrating is not a crime and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all those who require it and until we rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador,” Rodríguez said.
The Venezuelan leader also said that he held the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, responsible for the well-being of the Venezuelans deported to that country.
“You guarantee their health and, sooner rather than later, you have to hand them over and release them, because they are kidnapped,” Maduro said.
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