CONVIASA Flight Brings 199 Migrants Back to Venezuela

Venezuelan migrants, March 23, 2025. X/ @daviddelapaz

March 24, 2025 Hour: 9:32 am

Interior Minister Cabello stated that this was the 4th flight received with fellow nationals from U.S. territory.

In the early hours of Monday, 199 Venezuelan migrants returned to their country from the United States on a flight operated by the state airline CONVIASA.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello stated that this was the fourth flight received with fellow nationals from U.S. soil and noted that the trips have had “little regularity, but not due to Venezuela’s fault.”

“This is resuming, something that truly should not have any kind of problem,” he said, confirming that the deportees departed from the state of Texas en route to Honduras. One of the repatriated migrants arrived with a leg injury.

Cabello emphasized that “not a single one of the returned migrants” belongs to the Aragua Train, a criminal organization that Venezuelan authorities have previously fought and dismantled.

The Bolivarian official criticized the “narrative they have tried to impose about Venezuelan violence” abroad and demanded that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele return the Venezuelan migrants who are “being held hostage” in that nation.

#BackToTheHomelandPlan | #Venezuela🇻🇪 will receive freed citizens rescued from #U.S.🇺🇸 hostages. They departed from Honduras for their homeland. pic.twitter.com/1skAYBrPHr
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) March 24, 2025

“We would have to ask Mr. Bukele, a kidnapper of Venezuelans, if any of them have committed a crime in El Salvador,” Cabello criticized.

During the flight, several migrants told VTV television about the “mistreatment” they suffered during their detention in the United States. “We have experienced many psychological, emotional, and physical traumas,” said one of the deportees.

The Venezuelan government has insisted that it will not rest until it rescues the Venezuelan migrants detained in El Salvador. Jorge Rodriguez, President Maduro’s representative in negotiations with the U.S., stated that Venezuela has already hired the best law firms in El Salvador to secure the release of the detained migrants.

On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador underwent a “very rigorous” process to verify whether they were part of the Aragua Train. The White House, however, has not presented evidence to support these claims.