The government of Venezuela reported this Saturday that an agreement has been reached with the United States to reactivate repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants, starting on Sunday.
This action is part of the “Return to the Homeland Plan,” whose objective is to facilitate the return of Venezuelan citizens to their country, guaranteeing the protection of their human rights, as indicated in a statement published on the Instagram account of Jorge Rodríguez. Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly and representative in the peace dialogues, was responsible for signing the announcement.
“We have reached an agreement with the United States government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants, with the first flight scheduled for this Sunday, March 23,” he said, without providing further details.
Almost a week ago, the government of US President Donald Trump sent around 250 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador, despite a federal judge’s order that had blocked the decision based on an 18th-century declaration of war targeting alleged members of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua.
Members of this gang, which originated in the prisons of the South American country and was declared a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of State, accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the majority of whom were seeking to improve their living conditions amidst the economic crisis in Venezuela.
President Trump has not provided evidence that the deported individuals are members of the Tren de Aragua or that they have committed any crimes in the United States.
“Migrating is not a crime and we will not rest until achieving the return of all those who require it and rescuing our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador,” Rodriguez concluded in the statement.
The government of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has not accepted the entry of immigrants deported from the United States, except for certain exceptions. In recent weeks, about 350 people were deported to Venezuela, including around 180 who spent up to 16 days at the US naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba.
The Trump administration argued that the Venezuelans sent to the naval base are members of the Tren de Aragua, but has offered little evidence to support this claim.