The Trump administration directed a deportation flight to Venezuela on Sunday, just one day after the two countries struck a deal that included President Nicolas Maduro lifting his pause on accepting the planes.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello signaled the plane would be arriving at 8 p.m. ET at an airport near the country’s capital, Caracas, after a hand-off in Honduras. According to flight-tracking data, a plane operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was scheduled to arrive at an air base in Honduras, where the migrants would then be transferred to a Venezuelan state airliner.
It is unclear at this time how many migrants are on the flight, though two planes sent to El Salvador last weekend had roughly 250 suspected Tren de Aragua gang members onboard.
Maduro and his regime stopped accepting deportation flights from the United States after the U.S. Treasury Department moved to cancel Chevron’s license to pump oil in the country past April 3. However, President Donald Trump is reportedly now open to extending the license, while also pushing for tariffs or other financial penalties on countries that buy oil from Venezuela.
The deal struck over the weekend lifting the pause did not include any new details about Chevron’s license and whether it will be canceled or extended.
Maduro has been critical of Trump’s deportation efforts last weekend and signaled that he also wants those migrants sent to Venezuela, pinning blame on El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele.
“You [Bukele] have to guarantee their health and sooner rather than later, you have to free them and hand them over,” he said.
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Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez, who is Maduro’s chief negotiator with the U.S., also decried Trump’s previous deportations and urged the suspected gang members’ immediate return from El Salvador.
“Migrating isn’t a crime, and we won’t rest until everyone who wants to return is back and we rescue our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador,” Rodriguez said.
