From Guantanamo to Venezuela: a plane of immigrants deported from the US landed in Maiquetia

On Thursday, the United States  deported 177 Venezuelan immigrants it was holding at the Guantanamo military base in Cuba.

The group is in addition to 190 Venezuelans sent to their country 10 days ago and who fall under the policy of mass deportations that President Donald Trump promised when he returned to the White House.

The plane of the sanctioned state airline Conviasa flew from Honduras, where another U.S. aircraft arrived with the detainees coming from the military base where there are prisoners accused of terrorism and 30,000 beds were enabled for immigrants.

The deportees are all men, most of them were wearing loincloths, gray sports overalls and sneakers without laces or flip-flops, none of them handcuffed. They paraded in a corridor of military personnel deployed between the steps and the terminal. A little further back, hooded intelligence agents with guns.

"These who returned in theory are all the Venezuelanss who were in Guantanamo," Diosdado Cabello told reporters, who said that another migratory flight will arrive at the end of the week.

Some 7.7 million Venezuelans - 25% of the population, according to the UN - have left the country since 2014. Venezuela is an oil-rich country that has been immersed in a severe political, economic and social crisis for years.

They first aimed for South America but in recent years went to the United States, on a long road that began in the dangerous Darien jungle.

Tough hand against the Aragua Train

Trump's heavy-handed policy against irregular migration includes raids in several cities and mass expulsions, and the suspension of humanitarian programs launched by his predecessor, Joe Biden, that benefited Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans.

The Republican has said that the expulsions would target mainly criminals, including members of the Tren de Aragua, protagonists in his campaign speech.

The group was designated the day before as a terrorist organization by Washington.

Agreements with Venezuela even allowed two Conviasa planes to enter U.S. territory to pick up the first 190 nationals.

Honduran Deputy Foreign Minister Tony Garcia clarified to AFP that Honduras' participation Thursday in the handover does not make it a safe third country or a bridge for migrants expelled by the Trump Administration,