A plane from the United States landed at Caracas airport on Wednesday with 130 Venezuelan migrants expelled from the country on board. It was the first such flight following a recent agreement between the two governments.
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A few years ago, the United States stopped direct flights deporting immigrants to Venezuela, a country subject to sanctions by Washington, which did not recognize the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro in 2018.
But in early October, the two countries announced that they had reached an agreement to resume their activities.
AFP
Handcuffed and handcuffed, at least 130 migrants, all adults in isolation, were on the plane that landed at Simon Bolivar International Airport in the Venezuelan capital shortly after 4:30 p.m. local time (8:30 p.m. GMT).
“The mission in Venezuela was successfully completed,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (ICE) said in a message to reporters.
AFP
The plane had left the small Harlingen airport in south Texas near the Mexican border, where the migrants boarded at dawn, AFP noted. The plane landed in Caracas to refuel after a stop in Miami, Florida.
Until this agreement, Venezuelan migrants facing deportation from the United States were sent back to their country on commercial flights.
“Those traveling here range from those who have just entered our borders illegally to those who have been in the country for some time and have committed criminal acts,” said Corey Price, acting director of ICE. He emphasized that further flights of this type are planned “in the coming days and weeks”.
AFP
President Joe Biden, a candidate for re-election next year and whom the right has accused of weakness on migration issues, announced on October 5 the resumption of these direct expulsions and indicated that Caracas had agreed to accept its nationals.
AFP
This resumption of direct expulsions targets Venezuelans who entered American territory after July 31. For those who were there before that date, Washington announced the issuance of around 500,000 temporary residence permits.
According to the United Nations, more than seven million people have fled Venezuela since the collapse of Venezuela’s economy. The country’s GDP has shrunk by 80% in ten years.