First deportation flight lands in Venezuela from US, after countries agree to resume repatriations

By Michael Rios and Omar Fajardo, CNN

(CNN) — The first flight carrying Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States landed in Venezuela early Monday, after the two governments reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights.

Nearly 200 deportees were on the plane, which landed at an airport just north of capital Caracas.

Video of the arrival shows some deportees celebrating with their hands in the air as they walked down stairs on to the tarmac, where a heavy presence of security staff was stationed. Others made the sign of the cross as they disembarked.

The US Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said the flight departed from the US and stopped in Honduras, where a change of planes took place.

“Today, deportation flights of Venezuelan illegal aliens to their homeland resumed via Honduras,” the department wrote on X.

“These individuals had no legal basis to remain in the United States. We expect to see a consistent flow of deportation flights to Venezuela going forward. Thank you to Honduran President Castro and her government for partnering to combat illegal immigration.”

Honduras’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs said 199 citizens of Venezuelan origin were on the flight. The transfer took three and a half hours and occurred “in an orderly and safe manner,” Enrique Reina said in a post on X.

Following the transfer the “Venezuelan-flagged vessel departed for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” said Reina.

Repatriations to Venezuela had stalled over the Trump administration’s decision in February to revoke a license allowing American oil company Chevron to carry out some operations in the South American country.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said at the time that the decision “affected” the flights to Venezuela, prompting the Trump administration to threaten further sanctions on the South American country.

The resumption of repatriation flights follows growing outrage in Venezuela over the US deporting 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador, who were then transferred to the notorious Cecot mega-prison.

The US accused those migrants of being members of the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua, but some of their relatives told CNN that the deportees were not involved in any criminal activity.

Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez Gómez announced the agreement to resume repatriations in a statement on Saturday, two weeks after Venezuela had effectively paused repatriation flights from the US.

“Migration is not a crime, and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all those who need it and until we rescue our brothers and sisters kidnapped in El Salvador,” Rodríguez said Saturday.

CNN has contacted the US State Department and the Salvadoran presidency for comment on those remarks.

Venezuela does not have diplomatic relations in the US. Flight tracking data suggests the deportees were transferred Sunday from a Texas charter flight – which landed at an airbase in Honduras that was previously used for migrant transfers – to a Caracas-bound plane.

The White House hasn’t commented on Sunday’s deportation flight.

Maduro on Wednesday ordered his government to increase the number of flights needed to repatriate Venezuelan migrants detained in the US.

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