A flight carrying 231 Venezuelan migrants deported from the U.S. city of Phoenix arrived on Friday at an airport outside Caracas, according to Venezuelan officials, in what the report described as the first such direct transfer to resume. The Eastern Airlines plane brought the migrants nearly two weeks after the United States captured former President Nicolás Maduro and took him to New York to face drug trafficking charges, the Associated Press reported.
The arrival followed a period in which, according to Venezuelan officials, Washington unilaterally suspended direct deportation air transfers in mid-December. The AP report said the previous direct flight from the United States had taken place on Dec. 10.
The report also said that return flights for deported migrants had been regularized since late March as part of transfers agreed by both governments, and that the direct route had been interrupted before Friday’s resumption.
The flight’s return came amid heightened U.S.-Venezuela tensions, the AP reported, after U.S. military forces began carrying out a series of deadly attacks on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters of the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. The report said the boats included several vessels that U.S. authorities claim departed from Venezuela.
Maduro, the report said, maintained that U.S. President Donald Trump could order military action to try to overthrow him.
Friday’s arrival came 13 days after Maduro was captured along with his wife, Cilia Flores, during what the AP described as a military intervention in Caracas. The AP report said Maduro and Flores were later transferred to U.S. territory and appeared on Jan. 5 before a New York court to face narcoterrorism charges.
According to the report, both Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty.