AFP | From Guantanamo to Venezuela: New US deportations after mature-trump agreements

The United States deported 177 Venezuelan migrants who had detained in the Guantanamo military base in Cuba, as part of the agreements between these historically confronted countries.

The group joins 190 Venezuelans sent to their country 10 days ago and that enter the mass deportation policy that President Donald Trump promised when he returned to the White House.

«Thank you!» Shouted one of the deportees when lowering the aircraft. «You got me from there!» Another cried out to the Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, who received them. Welcome to the homeland, «he told them before.

The measure is part of the state of internal shock that President Gustavo Petro decreed in January after an ELN attack in the Catatumbo

The plane of the sanctioned state airline Conviasa flew from Honduras, where another American aircraft arrived with the detainees from the military base where there are prisoners accused of terrorism, including members of Al Qaida, and 30,000 beds for migrants were enabled.

The deportees are all men, most were with tapping, gray sporting monkey and shoes without ties or flip flops, none handcuffed. They paraded in a military corridor deployed between the staircase and the terminal. A little further back, hooded intelligence agents and with long weapons.

«These who returned in theory are all the Venezuelans who were in Guantanamo,» Cabello told journalists, who said that another migratory flight will arrive on the weekend.

Venezuela and the United States broke diplomatic relations in 2019, during the first Trump government, which led a failed international offensive against President Nicolás Maduro, reelected for a third mandate in questioned elections.

Washington does not know the result, but as soon as he assumed power again, the Republican began contacts with Caracas focused on migration and the release of American prisoners in Venezuela.

About 7.7 million Venezuelans – 25% of the population, according to the UN – abandoned Venezuela since 2014, a country rich in oil immersed in a severe political, economic and social crisis for years.

First they pointed to South America but in recent years they went to the United States, on a long road that began in the dangerous jungle of Darién.

Maduro said earlier that they have returned 900,000 migrants through a social program called return to the homeland and blamed the opposition of the diaspora again.

Trump’s hard hand policy against irregular migration includes raids in several mass cities and expulsions, and the suspension of humanitarian programs launched by their predecessor, Joe Biden, who benefited Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans.

The Republican has said that the expulsions would mainly point out criminals, including members of the Aragua train, protagonists in his campaign speech.

But the Venezuelan government said that so far no member of that organization arrived in the first group of 190: just 17 were arrested for minor crimes such as theft, Cabello said.

It is not clear if the 10 supposed members of the band, which the United States said they transferred to Guantanamo two weeks ago, came on this flight.

The group was designated on the eve as a terrorist organization by Washington, while Venezuela insisted on a statement that «was dismantled» in the country and that had links with the Venezuelan opposition, the FBI and the DEA.

Washington receives support from several Central American countries, such as Panama and Costa Rica, to host countries that do not accept repatriation flights or with which Washington has tense relations.

The agreements with Venezuela even allowed two Conviasa planes to enter American territory to look for the first 190 nationals.

Honduras clarified that his participation this Thursday in the delivery does not make him a «third safe country» or «bridge» of migrants expelled by the Trump administration, the Honduran Vice Chancellor, Tony García, told AFP.

«This is a transford,» he said.