Venezuela Welcomes Migrants with ‘Dignity’ Amid Calls to Maintain Direct Dialogue with Trump

Caracas, February 11, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – A group of Venezuelan migrants arrived in the Caribbean nation on Monday, following an agreement between Washington and Caracas to facilitate repatriations under “dignified” conditions.

Two planes from Venezuela’s state-owned airline Conviasa carrying approximately 190 deported Venezuelan nationals, departed from the US Army base Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, on Monday morning and landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas that evening.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello welcomed the returnees, and they received personalized attention and medical checkups from the International Red Cross and other organizations. “The first thing they did was sing the national anthem, expressing their sense of belonging to their homeland,” he said on national television.

Cabello highlighted that the flights marked the reactivation of Venezuela’s “Return to the Homeland” program, a government initiative launched in 2018 that has helped tens of thousands of Venezuelan migrants, mostly from Latin American countries, return home safely. 

With the exception of a brief period in October 2023, the program did not involve the return of Venezuelan nationals directly from US territory due to Washington’s restrictions on flights between the two countries as well as sanctions placed on Conviasa in 2020. Additionally, Caracas severed diplomatic ties with Washington in 2019 in response to US support for the self-proclaimed “interim government” of Juan Guaidó.

“Now, through open and direct dialogue between the [Venezuelan] and US governments, the program is being resumed,” emphasized Cabello.

In a statement released on Monday, the Venezuelan government added that the repatriation flights were the result of an agreement with White House Special Envoy Richard Grenell during his recent encounter with President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. 

The high-level meeting focused on several key issues, including the situation of Venezuelan migrants, US economic sanctions, the re-establishment of direct communication between the two nations, and the release of six formerly jailed US nationals, who returned to the United States alongside Grenell. 

“Venezuela emphasized that any transfer of Venezuelan migrants must be conducted with the utmost respect for their dignity and human rights and that we would provide Venezuelan aircraft to retrieve and transport the migrants returning to their homeland today,” the statement read.

Additionally, Caracas has condemned the “ill-intentioned” and “false narrative” surrounding the “Tren de Aragua” transnational crime organization, asserting that it unfairly stigmatizes all Venezuelan migrants and the country itself. The statement emphasized, “The majority of migrants are decent, hardworking individuals, and Venezuela is one of the safest places on our continent today.”

Despite these concerns, Venezuelan authorities have committed to conducting rigorous criminal background checks on specific individuals on board of Monday’s flights, ensuring that judicial procedures are followed.

Trump’s mass deportation plan has sparked significant controversy and confrontations with Latin American governments due to numerous violations of migrants’ rights. Critics have highlighted issues such as the excessive use of force, the handcuffing of individuals during detention and deportation, inadequate legal representation, and widespread accusations of criminal involvement.

The deportations come in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to revoke the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for over 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US. Under this program, individuals were able to reside in the country legally and have work permits. 

For his part, President Maduro welcomed the 190 migrants highlighting the “safe, loving, appropriate and dignified way” in which they arrived. “This is the world we want, a world of peace, understanding, dialogue and cooperation,” he said during his weekly television program.

The Venezuelan leader reiterated that the country’s migratory crisis is a direct consequence of the US-led economic sanctions regime. “Lift all sanctions and we guarantee that not a single Venezuelan will leave again and that all those who are abroad will return to work, to build and make Venezuela prosperous!” Maduro affirmed.

US unilateral coercive measures, first applied against Venezuela by President Barack Obama and extended into both the Trump and Biden administrations, have caused serious economic challenges for the Caribbean country, leading to a large emigration of people.

However, according to Panama’s National Migration Service, the flow of migrants through the Darien Gap decreased by 94 percent in January compared to the same period in 2024. In recent years, Venezuelans represented the bulk of those crossing the dangerous territory on their way to North America. The country has also witnessed the return of some former émigrés given a recovery of the economy, inflation control and ramped-up food production. 

Edited by Cira Pascual Marquina in Caracas and José Luis Granados Cejas in Mexico City, Mexico.

[Amended on February 18]