Venezuela sends 2 planes to US to return migrants
CARACAS
Two Venezuelan planes have returned home with about 190 Venezuelans deported from the United States, signaling a possible thaw in relations between two longtime diplomatic adversaries and a victory for President Donald Trump in his efforts to get more countries to take their people back.
Deportation flights from the U.S. to Venezuela have been halted for years except for a brief period in October 2023 during the Biden administration.
Venezuelans began showing up at the U.S. border with Mexico in large numbers in 2021 and are currently one of the largest nationalities entering illegally, making Venezuela's refusal to take them back a major challenge for the U.S.
The breakthrough came after Trump envoy Richard Grennell visited Caracas earlier this month.
“Flights of Illegal Aliens to Venezuela Resume,” the White House said on Feb. 10 in a post on the social platform X, saying they were overseen by Grennell.
Venezuelan television and radio triumphantly covered the arrival of the Conviasa flights in Caracas from Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army base in El Paso, Texas.
“This is the world we want, a world of peace, understanding, dialogue and cooperation,” said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
Feb. 10’s s flights came days after the first flights of immigrants to a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck agreements with El Salvador and Guatemala for those countries to take people who were not their citizens.
