Over 500 Venezuelan migrants return home on repatriation flights
More than 500 Venezuelan migrants are set to return to their home country this Thursday on two flights operated by the state-run airline Conviasa.
This is part of the government's ongoing repatriation initiative, 'Vuelta a la Patria.'
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced additional returns scheduled for Friday, including a flight operated by a U.S. aircraft expected to arrive at 6:00 p.m. local time.
Speaking during a televised event on state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), Maduro said these repatriations mark a new phase of coordination with the United States, Mexico, and Honduras, El Comercio reports.
According to Maduro, two groups will land in Venezuela on Thursday: one carrying approximately 300 Venezuelans returning from Mexico at 11:00 a.m. local time and another flight arriving at 3:00 p.m. with over 200 migrants he claimed were "rescued from U.S. prisons," some of whom had been detained for over a year.
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“In the vast majority of cases, they are economic migrants who left as a result of the economic war and sanctions, looking for a better future, and who ended up persecuted by the U.S. government,” Maduro said.
The Venezuelan government says 1,471 citizens have returned home since February 2025 under the Vuelta a la Patria program, which was launched in 2018. The initiative aims to provide a safe path back for Venezuelans who emigrated during the country's economic crisis but now seek to return.
