Diosdado Cabello receives a new flight of Venezuelan migrants returning to the country

teleSUR English

Minister of Interior, Peace and Justice of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, receives the 175 deported migrants from the U.S. who returned in a in a new flight as part of the humanitarian plan “Return to the Homeland”. teleSUR

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00:00commitment to the safe return of Venezuelan connationals amid the massive deportation

00:05campaign being carried out by the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump.

00:11This Conviasa airplane is arriving straight from Texas.

00:15Let's listen to the Minister of Interior Justice and Peace,

00:17Gustavo Cabello, who is offering statements.

00:48sent from the United States back to Venezuela after having suffered persecution and mistreatment.

00:59They have all been accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal group.

01:05For the first time, this is the first time that one of these flights has one migrant

01:19which has been of interest for the American justice, but he's not part of the Tren de

01:26Aragua.

01:30He belongs to the state of Trujillo.

01:33For the first time after over 1,000 people, this is the first time that there is one of

01:39the migrants in one of those flights that actually has been sought by American justice

01:49or that had issues with American justice.

01:56We expected this flight earlier.

01:59They had announced over 200 people on the flight, but it's only 175.

02:10I guess they're not as orderly on this issue as they should.

02:14I said it before.

02:17They change all the details about the flight at the very end.

02:21They are creating a sort of logistic mess, because no one should leave an airport without

02:29declaring where they're going to.

02:33So they have their operations a little bit out of control, and that has nothing to do

02:39with us.

02:42The initial information that all of the people on the flight are members of the Tren de Aragua,

02:47that's not true.

02:48That is a stigmatizing statement, criminalizing Venezuelans.

02:54We have said this many times.

02:56Anyone who comes on those flights with a criminal record, whether it's been in Venezuela or

03:07by Interpol, we will act according to the law.

03:13If they had made any crime, committed any crime in the United States, they should have

03:18been tried in the United States.

03:20That should be the mechanism.

03:22If they assaulted anybody in the States, charges should have been pressed in the United States.

03:34And from now on, they should be more careful in the way they organize these flights.

03:47And logistics, we will keep it as usual, as we have been doing so far.

03:53But today, they are going to use a different tunnel, and they will enter directly into

04:07a room where they will be taken care of.

04:19Why are you changing the procedure on this flight, which is the first flight carrying

04:23an American flag?

04:25Well, I think I said – in everything I said before, this is – there is the answer to

04:33your question.

04:35They change the number of passengers come in.

04:38It's kind of messy.

04:41They can fly to Venezuela, same as we have flown to Venezuela – to the United States,

04:49I'm sorry.

04:52That's why I said they should be more clear on the whole procedure.

05:10That's on their part.

05:12We have nothing to do with all this mismatching of information.

05:17The – OK, so far, how many people have arrived on these flights?

05:26I think it was around 1,279, plus the 175 arriving now.

05:34But from all of that, only one of those persons actually belongs to the Tren de Aragua and

05:44is arriving today.

05:46I'm sorry, he belongs to another GAN operated in Trujillo State, not to the Aragua GAN.

06:10We expect these flights to come regularly, but then there was a notification today by

06:15the government to the oil partners.

06:21How is this going to play in the future?

06:25We have made a commitment to bring our – to flight our migrants back home.

06:31We don't know which airline we use, but the change in airliners has to do with a messy

06:41way they're handling.

06:46They should agree on the way they should be carrying out these operations.

06:51Let's hope today's experiment works.

07:01They have a kind of convoluted procedure.

07:04They've made a convoluted procedure this time.

07:06They changed the destination airport at the end.

07:16We are in direct communication with authorities.

07:21Of course, we know what time the plane is arriving, and we have to coordinate all that

07:28with the ministry.

07:32They leave the United States with a flying permit to fly over Venezuelan territory.

07:47It's the same format, but a different way to put it in place.

07:54It may be that Conviasa may not travel to a certain country, and then we send – we

07:59charter a flight, and we send that flight.

08:03That's just normal.

08:06It's just part of the operation.

08:08This is part of the return to homeland operation.

08:14But this is a violation of the human rights of Venezuelans in El Salvador.

08:33On Thursday, do we have still the number of 10 people with criminal records?

08:39Yes.

08:40The procedure is the same.

08:45The flight makes a stopover in El Salvador.

08:49Venezuelans step down, and they are flown back to Venezuela.

09:00That was Captain Diosdado Cabello.

09:07We were listening to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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