The United States resumed on Monday air deportations to Venezuela with the arrival of flight 165 from the government program Great Mission Return to the Homeland, the first since the devastating earthquakes on June 24.
The aircraft, arriving from Miami, Florida, landed at the General José Antonio Anzoátegui International Airport, located in Barcelona, the capital of the eponymous state in the eastern part of the country.
The main Venezuelan airport, Simón Bolívar de Maiquetía, has been closed since June 24 due to the severe structural damage caused by the earthquakes.
The flight transported 147 Venezuelans: 132 men and 15 women. The Venezuelan government program described the arrival as a "joyful reunion in our nation," following "all necessary protocols."
This is flight number 165 since Caracas and Washington signed a bilateral migration agreement at the beginning of 2025, which allowed for the resumption of direct deportations to Venezuela.
Since then, flights operated with a frequency of two to three times a week, and by November 2025, the program had repatriated more than 20,200 migrants.
The previous flight, number 164, had arrived from Miami on June 24 with 146 Venezuelans —including seven children— at Simón Bolívar airport, just hours before the double earthquake measuring 7.2 and 7.5 that shook the northern part of the country.
That group was trapped in the Hotel Santuario La Llanada, which collapsed after the earthquakes, in one of the most tragic episodes of the disaster.
The earthquakes have resulted in at least 6,125 dead according to official figures, as well as over 16,000 injured and tens of thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed.
The tragedy of the 147 Venezuelans who arrived in La Guaira just hours before the earthquakes sparked an international debate regarding deportations in emergency contexts and highlighted the plight of Venezuelan migrants in the United States.
The resumption of flights between Miami and Maracaibo by American Airlines in July 2026 was one of the responses from the private sector following the closure of Simón Bolívar due to the earthquakes in June.
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