Venezuela to resume repatriation of migrants after deal with US

Venezuelan migrants disembark an airplane as they arrive on a repatriation flight from Mexico at the Simon Bolivar International Airport, in Maiquetia, Venezuela on 20 March

Venezuela will resume flights for its nationals deported by the US, after reaching an agreement with the Trump administration.

Venezuela, which does not have diplomatic relations with the US, had initially agreed to accept deportees in February. But President Nicolás Maduro halted flights in March after a dispute with the Trump administration.

"Tomorrow, thanks to the government's perseverance, we'll resume flights to continue rescuing and freeing migrants from prisons in the United States," Maduro said in a televised address on Saturday, Reuters reports.

The White House and US State Department did not respond to BBC requests for comment.

Trump's special envoy, Richard Grenell, had initially brokered a deal with Venezuela's government to take back its citizens deported from the US.

"Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the US, including gang members of Tren de Aragua," Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time. "Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back."

But Maduro halted deportation flights from the US on 8 March, after the US Treasury Department suspended the energy giant Chevron's permission to export oil from Venezuela, the AP reported.

On 15 March, the Trump administration deported 238 Venezuelans, who they alleged belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, to El Salvador, where they were detained at a mega-prison.

The administration has not named the individuals deported, or provided details of their alleged criminal behaviour

In a statement issued on Saturday, Jorge Rodríguez, president of Venezuela's national assembly, appeared to address the matter of the Venezuelan nationals currently held in El Salvador.

He said Venezuela accepted a deal to assure "the return of our compatriots to their nation with the safeguard of their Human Rights," the AP reported.

"Migrating isn't a crime, and we won't rest until everyone who wants to return is back and we rescue our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador."

Trump has used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as a legal basis for removing 137 of those Venezuelan deportees, which immediately prompted a legal challenge.

A federal judge in Washington, DC sought to block the deportation flights to El Salvador via a verbal order.

However, the planes landed in El Salvador, and the country's president Nayib Bukele posted on social media that the intervention came "too late".

The White House has faced allegations of defying the judge's order, which it refutes.

The judge, James Boesberg, demanded more details from a government lawyer at a hearing on Friday.