EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The United States and Mexico on Thursday teamed up to fly more than 500 migrants to Venezuela.
A flight from Mexico City carrying 313 Venezuelan citizens landed at Simon Bolivar International Airport in a Caracas suburb in the morning. A Conviasa flight that picked up 198 Venezuelans dropped off from a U.S. deportation flight in Honduras arrived in the afternoon.
Venezuela Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello told Venezuelan television the flight from Mexico carried 151 children, including six who had arrived in the United States unaccompanied. It also brought home 102 women, including 16 who were pregnant.
The unaccompanied children were to be released to relatives after a vetting process, he said.
“For many, this has been a confusing return, with fears of being taken to detention centers. We can reassure them they will be able to return in peace to their homes and return to their daily lives” under a program called Plan Vuelta a la Patria, Cabello told Globovision.
Cabello said before Thursday, 1,610 Venezuelans had been returned to their country in flights originating in the United States or Mexico since Feb. 10. He said the returns would continue – another U.S. deportation flight was scheduled for Friday – under an agreement with the U.S. State Department.
However, he told reporters on Thursday he isn’t happy with the treatment of his countrymen in the U.S. nor with the Trump administration characterizing the deportees as gang members.
“There is a tremendous disorder. One day they (the deportees) are all Tren de Aragua, and they end up being three or four Tren de Aragua,” Cabello said on Venezolana de Television (VTV). “Several had a criminal process, yes, but none were linked to Tren de Aragua. It is an urban legend.”
But if he’s unhappy with the U.S., he’s incensed with the government of El Salvador. That’s because the U.S. sent to El Salvador dozens of alleged gang members, which the administration of President Nayib Bukele put in jails.
“We are demanding from the government of El Salvador – which has arbitrarily kidnapped our citizens – to return to Venezuela its children,” Cabello said on VTV. “They cannot be tried in El Salvador because they did not commit a crime in El Salvador. If they committed crimes in the U.S., the United States should try them.”
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