U.S.-operated flights deporting migrants to Venezuela will continue, despite President Donald Trump’s statement that Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed.
According to The Associated Press, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government announced Tuesday that twice-weekly flights will go on, following a request from the Trump administration.
This reverses a Saturday statement from Venezuela indicating that U.S. immigration authorities had unilaterally suspended the flights.
An overflight and landing application submitted Monday by U.S.-based Eastern Airlines requests permission for a flight arrival on Wednesday.
Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister made the application public on Tuesday.
Venezuelans have been steadily deported this year after Maduro, under pressure from Washington, ended his long-standing policy of refusing deportees from the United States.
Immigrants now arrive regularly at the airport outside Caracas on flights operated either by a U.S. government contractor or Venezuela’s state-owned airline.
The flights continue even amid U.S. military strikes targeting vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean and off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.
The Trump administration says the strikes target drug cartels, some of which it claims are linked to Maduro.
Trump is also reportedly weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.
So far this year, more than 13,000 migrants have been deported to Venezuela on dozens of chartered flights, with the latest flight arriving Friday.
