Venezuela to resume accepting US deportation flights
Venezuela will resume accepting deportation flights from the US after Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro suspended the flights earlier this month.
Jorge Rodríguez, the president of Venezuela's Assembly and chief negotiator with the U.S. announced the change in policy on Saturday.
"We have agreed with the U.S. government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with an initial flight tomorrow, Sunday," Rodriguez said.
He added that the deal with the U.S. secured the "return of our compatriots to their nation with the safeguard of their Human Rights."
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Rodriguez referenced the deportation of some Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in his statement. President Donald Trump's administration has sent some Venezuelan members of the Tren de Aragua gang to the country.
"Migrating is not a crime and we will not rest until we achieve the return of all those who require it and until we rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador," Rodríguez said in a statement.
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Maduro himself referred to the Venezuelans held in El Salvador as "kidnapped" on Saturday.
In recent weeks, some 350 people were deported to Venezuela, including some 180 who spent up to 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
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The Trump administration said that the Venezuelans sent to Guantanamo are members of Tren de Aragua.
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Venezuela had long been a friendly oil-trading partner of the U.S. until Maduro's leftist regime took root following the 1998 and 2000 elections under the rule of the late Hugo Chavez and foreign policy challenges arose.