Venezuela will once again accept repatriation flights from the United States carrying its deported nationals after reaching an agreement with the U.S., a Venezuelan official said on social media Saturday.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro suspended flights on March 8, after the U.S. Treasury Department announced the withdrawal of Chevron’s license to export Venezuelan oil.
“We have agreed with the U.S. government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with an initial flight tomorrow, Sunday,” said Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela’s Assembly and Maduro’s chief negotiator with the U.S.
Venezuela accepted the deal to guarantee the “the return of our compatriots to their nation with the safeguard of their Human Rights,” Rodríguez said.
In his statement, Rodríguez referred to the deportation by President Trump’s government of several hundred Venezuelans to a high-security prison in El Salvador.
“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.
U.S. officials confirmed Sunday night the first flight had arrived in Venezuela, saying it carried 199 people, including alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The officials did not specify how many were alleged Tren de Aragua members or how their affiliations were determined.
Maduro ratified the measure during a public event later in the day. “We are resuming flights to rescue and release migrants from U.S. prisons,” Maduro 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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Mr. Trump alleged the deportees were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. He labeled the Tren de Aragua an invading force on March 15 when he invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a little-used authority from 1798 that allows the president to deport any non-citizen during wartime. A federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations, but flights were in the air when the ruling came down.
Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. Department of State designated a foreign terrorist organization, originated in a prison in the South American country. Members accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nation’s economy came undone last decade.
The Trump administration has not provided evidence that the deportees are members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crime in the U.S.
CBS News obtained a list of the names of the 238 Venezuelan men who were deported to El Salvador last weekend aboard those three flights. U.S. officials have said 137 of them were treated as “enemy aliens” and removed from the country under the 18th century law. The other 101 were deported under regular immigration procedures, the officials have said.
Documents obtained by CBS News showed that at least one of the men deported, a 26-year-old barber from Venezuela, has no criminal record in the U.S., and Venezuelan officials said he has no record there either.
Maduro’s government has mostly refused the entry of immigrants deported from the U.S. Those deportations have sharply picked up since Trump took office on Jan. 20.
In recent weeks, some 350 people were deported to Venezuela, including some 180 who spent up to 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Trump administration said that the Venezuelans sent to Guantanamo are members of Tren de Aragua, but offered little evidence to back this up.
