CARACAS.- Los deportation flights of Venezuelans that the government of US President Joe Biden had been implementing since last October have been interrupted after the US warned the Venezuelan authorities with reactivate economic sanctions if he does not comply with the political agreement signed in Barbados with the country’s opposition.
Los deportation flights They had been doing one a week, but this past Wednesday the one that was planned did not come out, and it was for the second consecutive week.
According to The New York Times, two flights have been cancelled, the one from last week and another scheduled for this week that is about to end, according to information from the US Department of Homeland Security. Apparently, the cause comes from Venezuela.
The deportation flights were interrupted in 2019, during the government of former President Donald Trump, who alleged that Venezuela did not provide guarantees for the safety of passengers or flight crew in the context of the climate of tension in the country due to demonstrations of street and violence.
However, The Biden Administration decided to resume them with the aim of showing that it was “taking actions” to confront the immigration wave of Venezuelans who have flooded the region. Biden has been the target of harsh criticism in the US states and cities where Venezuelans have arrived en masse, causing a migration crisis that has required local efforts to care for the hundreds of thousands of migrants.
On Monday, the senior advisor to the US National Security Council, Juan González, confirmed the cancellation of a deportation flight recent, although they stated that they hope to be able to resume them soon.
“We hope to actually be able to resume direct repatriations from the United States to Venezuela,” he said.
Meanwhile, Christopher Sabatini, a researcher on Latin America at Chatham House, an institute based in London, said that the stoppage of flights could be a strategy by Maduro in the face of Washington’s warning to reimpose sanctions on oil and gas. Sabatini concluded that it could be interpreted as a move by the authoritarian regime of Venezuela to attack President Biden in an issue in which he is perceived as weak. Recently, the approval of a border security package failed in the US Senate.
Last week, Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, warned that They will revoke repatriation flights starting February 13 in response to Washington’s announcement that it will reverse the relief of economic sanctions, considering that the regime has taken undemocratic actions.
Rodríguez responded to a message from the spokesperson for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, who announced on the social network They revoked the relief of sanctions on Venezuelan mining and that in April they will do so with oil and gasunless “Maduro’s representatives fulfill their commitments,” in reference to the Barbados Agreement.
Rodríguez described the announcement as “rude and improper blackmail.” Likewise, the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Yván Gil, published a statement from the regime, also in X, rejecting the US “ultimatum.”
Washington’s warning came after the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela, controlled by Chavismo, ratify the political disqualification against the opposition leader María Corina Machadowhich prevents her from registering as a candidate for this year’s presidential elections.
Machado managed to win the “unitary” opposition candidacy in a primary election that those opposed to the regime held in October 2023, a few days after representatives of the opposition and the regime signed the Barbados Agreement. Machado won with 92% of the votes, becoming not only the “unitary” candidate, but also the leader of the opposition. Voting intention surveys recently published in the South American country show that Machado would achieve a resounding victory in a presidential election if said elections were held in a free, fair and transparent manner.
Yesterday, Thursday, The European Parliament (EP) expressed its condemnation of Machado’s disqualificationdemanding that the European Union (EU) increase sanctions against the Maduro regime and adopt measures against the Supreme Court judges responsible for the disqualification.
From October to the end of December 2023, Some 1,300 Venezuelans were deported by the US, according to The New York Times. It is estimated that in recent years more than 500,000 Venezuelans have arrived in the United States, fleeing the economic, political, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. According to UN figures, some 7.2 million Venezuelans have left their country in the last 10 years, in one of the largest migrations in history.
Source: EDITORIAL / With information from The New York Times
