US sends migrants from Guantanamo to Venezuela

MAIQUETA, Venezuela: The United States deported 177 migrants from its military base in Guantanamo, Cuba to their homeland in Venezuela on Friday, the latest sign of cooperation between the long-feuding governments.

Officials in Washington and Caracas confirmed that a plane left the US base and deposited the 177 people in Honduras, where they were picked up by the Venezuelan government. The deportees then left for Venezuela on a flag carrier Conviasa flight that arrived in Maiquetia late on Thursday.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello received the all-male group of deportees at the airport, telling them: “Welcome to the homeland.” “Those who returned, in theory, are all Venezuelans who were in Guantanamo,” Cabello told journalists, adding that another deportation flight was expected to arrive at the end of the week.

The carefully choreographed operation would have seemed impossible just weeks ago when the United States accused President Nicolas Maduro of stealing an election. But since President Donald Trump entered office four weeks ago, relations have thawed, with the White House prioritizing immigration cooperation.

Maduro said the handover was at the “direct request” of his government to that of Trump. “We have rescued 177 new migrants from Guantanamo,” he said at an official event. Trump envoy Richard Grenell traveled to Caracas on January 31 and met Maduro, who is the subject of a $25 million US bounty for his arrest.