Venezuela agrees to resume flights of deported migrants from US, says US diplomat

 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government has agreed to resume flights of deported migrants who unlawfully entered the United States, a senior U.S. diplomat announced in a post on X on Thursday, after an apparent pause in the repatriation flights that kicked off last month.

U.S. diplomat Richard Grenell added in his post that the flights would start tomorrow.

Venezuela’s communication ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In late January, Grenell visited the Venezuelan capital of Caracas as an envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump to meet with President Nicolas Maduro and discuss the deportation of migrants, among other issues.

Shortly afterwards, a group of Americans held in Venezuela were released and the repatriation flights commenced.

Venezuelans make up a large portion of migrants who have sought entry into the United States in recent years, with many fleeing their home country due to an extended economic and political crisis.

Last weekend, Maduro indicated that scheduled flights to transport deported Venezuelan migrants had been “affected” by the Trump administration’s decision to cancel a key oil license that had allowed U.S.-based oil major Chevron to operate in the country.

The U.S. government cited a lack of progress on electoral reforms in addition to the stalled migrant returns to justify the license cancellation, which the Maduro government had relied on to generate much-needed revenue.

Last year, the government-aligned electoral authority and top court declared Maduro the winner of a disputed presidential election, even though authorities never released ballot box-level vote tallies.

Maduro’s political opposition did publish thousands of voting machine receipts showing that its candidate won in a landslide, prompting many governments including in Washington to dismiss the official election result as flawed.