Venezuela flies deportees home from Texas in attempt to improve relations with US

Donald Trump’s deportation drive took a curious turn when two Venezuelan planes entered US airspace to pick up around 190 Venezuelan deportees and fly them home to Caracas from Fort Bliss, Texas, on February 10.

The presence of Venezuelan state aircraft in US airspace indicated a significant shift in relations between the two countries as the Conviasa airline has been sanctioned by the US since 2020.

The Trump administration promptly took to its X account to declare, “Repatriation flights to Venezuela have resumed. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”

A number of the deportees are allegedly linked to the Tren de Aragua international crime organization, whom Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has promised to deal with severely.

Since a breakdown in relations between the US and Venezuela in 2019, Maduro has been refusing to accept deportees from the US.

However, a brief visit to Caracas from Trump advisor Richard Grenell at the end of January persuaded him otherwise.

Grenell is the first US official to visit the country in years, and his flying visit there is being perceived as lending legitimacy to a leader accused of stealing the last elections in July 2024.

Ostensibly, the Maduro government is claiming that Venezuela is providing its own transport for deportees so that they may be returned to their country of origin with dignity and not in shackles.

However, human rights activists are concerned that the reception awaiting those who left Venezuela to escape Maduro’s autocratic regime may be less than dignified.

Maduro has a well-documented reputation for jailing those he believes to be unpatriotic or critical of his regime. More than six million have fled Venezuela since 2017.

“I don’t expect them to have any guarantee of due process upon return,” Laura Dib, a Venezuela analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America told The New York Times.

“If anything, I think there could be retaliations against people that had fled to the US,” she added.

According to Newsweek, Maduro hopes his eagerness to play ball with Trump will mark the start of a new era for Venezuela.

Suffering from economic sanctions, the Venezuela leader is hoping for a diplomatic reset under the “Zero Agenda,” a proposal aimed at reestablishing ties between Washington and Caracas.

The Venezuelan government issued a press release the same day its two planes carried its first human cargo home.

“The Government of President Nicolás Maduro Moros reiterates its proposal, within the framework of the ‘Zero Agenda,’ for a fresh start in relations between both countries, based on mutual respect and the safeguarding of our self-determination,” it read.

Never miss a story! Click here to follow The Daily Digest.