CARACAS, Venezuela — An Eastern Airlines charter carrying 231 Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. city of Phoenix landed at an airport outside the capital on Friday, resuming direct deportation flights after a roughly five-week suspension, Venezuelan officials said. The arrival marked the first direct U.S.-to-Venezuela deportation transfer since Dec. 10, according to Venezuelan officials, who said Washington unilaterally halted the flights in mid-December.
The resumption comes 13 days after U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a military intervention in Caracas — an operation that transformed the bilateral relationship, including the migrant-transfer arrangements both governments had regularized since late March.
Flights suspended amid escalating tensions
Return flights for deported migrants had operated since late March as part of transfers agreed to by both governments, the Associated Press reported. Venezuelan officials said the U.S. side suspended the direct air transfers in mid-December without prior agreement.
The transfers were affected by a series of escalating confrontations. U.S. military forces executed attacks against vessels in international waters of the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean suspected of drug smuggling, including several boats the U.S. claimed had departed from Venezuela. Before his capture, Maduro had maintained that U.S. President Donald Trump could order military action to try to overthrow him.
Maduro and Flores face narcoterrorism charges
The diplomatic backdrop changed sharply with the Jan. 3 military intervention in which U.S. forces captured Maduro along with his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas. Both were subsequently transferred to U.S. territory, where they appeared before a New York court on Jan. 5 to face narcoterrorism charges. Both pleaded not guilty.