Venezuela announced on Tuesday that it had reauthorized flights carrying migrants deported by the United States, days after suspending them due to President Donald Trump’s demand that Venezuelan airspace be considered “closed.”
The aviation authority “has received a request from the US government to resume flights repatriating Venezuelan migrants from that country to Venezuela,” said a statement from the Ministry of Transportation. “On the instructions of President Nicolas Maduro, this is authorized.”
Trump has ramped up pressure on Venezuela, accusing Maduro’s government of being a drug cartel and carrying out military strikes on boats off the country’s coast that Washington says were carrying drugs.
Venezuela’s leftist leader Maduro has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas and rejected what he called a “slave’s peace” for the region, amid mounting fears of further US military action.
The months-long US campaign to target alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean has so far killed more than 80 people, with international experts warning the strikes are likely illegal under international law.
Despite the crisis, flights deporting migrants from the United States to Venezuela — a key part of Trump’s hardline anti-immigration policies — had continued until the US leader’s threat over Venezuelan airspace.
A new flight had been authorized to land in Venezuela on Wednesday, the transportation ministry said.
“To date, 75 flights have been carried out to repatriate 13,956 people,” Caracas said on Saturday.
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