CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela announced Saturday it had reached an agreement with Washington to accept additional deportation flights from the United States, one week after more than 200 Venezuelans accused of being gang members were sent to El Salvador.

The flights were suspended last month when US President Donald Trump claimed Venezuela had not lived up to its promises, and Caracas subsequently said it would no longer accept the flights.

But then Washington deported 238 Venezuelans accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump has designated a foreign terrorist organisation, to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, a move deeply criticized by Caracas.

“In order to ensure the return of our countrymen with the protection of their human rights, we have agreed with the US government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with a first flight tomorrow,” Venezuelan top negotiator Jorge Rodriguez said in a statement.

“Migrating is not a crime, and we will not rest until all those who want to return are home, and until we rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador,” said Rodriguez, who is also the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly.

Sunday’s trip will be the fifth flight of migrants arriving in Venezuela since Trump took office in January. Since February, about 900 Venezuelans have been repatriated, most from the United States and some from Mexico.

“Tomorrow, thanks to the perseverance and persistence of our government, we will resume flights to continue rescuing and releasing migrants from US prisons,” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday.

“We will rescue a group of young men tomorrow, and next week, and the week after that.”

– Major US immigration crackdown –
Last month, Trump revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to operate in Venezuela — a blow to Caracas’s wobbly economy. The Republican president said Maduro had failed to accept deported migrants “at the rapid pace” they agreed to.

The countries broke off diplomatic relations in 2019, during Trump’s first term, after Washington recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaido as “interim president” following 2018 elections widely rejected as neither free nor fair.

Maduro nevertheless maintained his grip on power, and Joe Biden’s administration relaxed sanctions on Venezuelan oil as part of a deal for American prisoners and a promise to hold free elections. Those promised reforms never came.

Washington did not recognize Maduro’s 2024 reelection win.

There had been glimmers of hope for the relationship at the start of Trump’s new term, with US envoys in Caracas for talks.

Then Trump invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act to target Tren de Aragua, and sparked anger by reaching a deal with Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele to use his Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) outside San Salvador.

Relatives of some of those deported to El Salvador told AFP they were told they were being taken to Venezuela.

Maduro said Saturday that those men, “who never committed crimes in the United States, much less in El Salvador,” would eventually be returned to Venezuela.

Then on Friday, the United States said it was revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including from Venezuela, who had been granted entry under a plan launched by Biden in 2022.

They now have 30 days to leave the country.

Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations.

More than seven million Venezuelans have fled Venezuela over the last decade as their country’s oil-rich economy implodes under Maduro.