On Friday, January 16th, a plane carrying 231 Venezuelan immigrants arrived at the Maiquetia Simon Bolivar International Airport in the capital city of Caracas, Venezuela. This marked the first repatriation flight sent by the United States to Venezuela since former President Maduro stepped down.
The Venezuelan immigrants traveled back to their country on a plane operated by Eastern Airlines. This event signifies the resumption of the U.S. program to repatriate undocumented Venezuelan migrants. The program was temporarily suspended in mid-December last year, and the last repatriation flight directly from the U.S. to Venezuela was on December 10th.
The latest repatriation plane dispatched by the Trump administration took off from Phoenix, Arizona. This action represents a shift in the relationship between the two countries following recent military actions taken by the U.S. against Venezuela.
On January 3rd, the U.S. carried out an airstrike in Caracas, capturing the Maduro couple and transporting them to New York for criminal trials related to drugs and weapons.
Two days before Venezuela received the repatriation flight, President Trump had a friendly phone call with the acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez.
The Venezuelan government had previously stated that between February and November last year, nearly 14,000 Venezuelans had flown back to their country from the U.S. during the implementation of the new immigration policies by the Trump administration.