Handcuffed and handcuffed, at least 130 Venezuelan migrants, men and women, all isolated adults, disembarked on Wednesday October 18 from a Boeing 737 in Caracas from the United States from where they were expelled .
“The mission in Venezuela has been successfully completed,” US Immigration Enforcement (ICE) said in a message to reporters about the first such flight after a recent agreement between the two governments.
The plane landed shortly after 4:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. Paris time) at Simon Bolivar International Airport in the Venezuelan capital. He had left at dawn the small airport in Harlingen, in south Texas, near the Mexican border, where migrants had been searched by American immigration agents before boarding. The plane then made a stopover in Miami, Florida to refuel.
Several years ago, the United States stopped flights specifically intended to expel immigrants to Venezuela, a country marked by great political and economic instability, and subject to sanctions from Washington which has not recognized the re-election of the president. Nicolas Maduro in 2018. But the two countries announced in early October that they had reached an agreement with a view to resuming these expulsion flights.
Other flights planned “in the days and weeks to come”
Until this agreement, Venezuelan migrants to be deported from the United States were returned to their country on commercial flights. “Those traveling here range from those who have just entered our borders illegally to those who have been in the country for some time and have committed criminal acts,” Corey Price, associate director of the ICE. More such flights are planned “in the coming days and weeks,” he noted.
These flights respond to “an increase in migration from Venezuela that is straining immigration systems across the hemisphere – including in the United States,” the US Department of Transportation said.
President Joe Biden, candidate for re-election next year and whom the right accuses of weakness in matters of migration, announced on October 5 the resumption of these direct expulsions, specifying that Caracas had agreed to receive its nationals. This resumption of direct expulsions targets Venezuelans who entered American territory after July 31. For those who were there before this date, Washington announced the granting of some 500,000 temporary residence permits.
The United States has struggled for years to deport people to countries with which it has tense diplomatic relations, including Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. After a hiatus of more than two years, Cuba allowed U.S. deportations to resume in April, with deportation flights operating there only about once a month.
The U.S. government hopes that the recent threat of deportation will be enough to prompt Venezuelans to reconsider attempting to enter the United States illegally, and instead opt for the online appointment system to file an asylum application or try other legal avenues. But this has not deterred many people from continuing to migrate.
According to the United Nations, more than seven million people have fled Venezuela since its economy collapsed. The country saw its GDP contract by 80% in ten years.
Reduction of certain sanctions
Furthermore, the United States announced on Wednesday a limited reduction in American sanctions imposed against the country in response to the signing the day before of an agreement between the authorities and the opposition with a view to holding a presidential election in 2024 .
The American government reauthorizes the purchase of Venezuelan gas and oil for a period of six months, which can be renewed if “Venezuela respects the commitments made under the electoral agreement” as well as concerning detained persons, says a press release from the American Undersecretary of the Treasury, in charge of financial intelligence and terrorism, Brian Nelson.
For the gold sector, whose transactions have also been reauthorized, no duration is specified, the Treasury Department justifying its decision by a desire to “reduce gold exchanges on the black market”.
The United States is also allowing new trading of Venezuelan debt securities in the secondary market. The ban on the primary market, i.e. debt securities newly issued by the Venezuelan government, however, remains in force. The freezing of Venezuelan assets and other sanctions also remain in place.
This decision comes after the agreement on Tuesday between the government and the opposition of Venezuela, during negotiations in Barbados, for a presidential election to be held in the second half of 2024, which Washington had already welcomed in a press release.
The opposition has not recognized President Nicolas Maduro’s 2018 re-election in a vote widely considered fraudulent and not recognized by many countries. The following year, Washington strengthened sanctions against Caracas first imposed in 2015 over the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
In 2019, Washington, as well as part of the international community, recognized Juan Guaido, opposition leader who had just proclaimed himself interim president. But the opposition ended this interim presidency in January, believing that it had not fulfilled its objectives of political change.