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Venezuela repatriates 700 citizens from Trinidad and Tobago

AFP/Editor

President Nicolas Maduro’s government repatriated more than 700 Venezuelans who fled to nearby Trinidad and Tobago amid their homeland’s crippling economic crisis, the Foreign Ministry announced Sunday.

“More than 700 Venezuelans have arrived in Venezuela from Trinidad and Tobago in the first ‘Vuelta a la Patria’ (Return to the Homeland) plan carried out by sea,” the ministry said in a statement on Twitter.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza also shared a video filmed by one of the repatriated people, in which fellow returnees can be seen singing and clapping.

Maduro launched the “Return to the Homeland” plan in August 2018 to facilitate the voluntary return, initially by land and plane, of Venezuelans who fled the crisis that the government blames on US sanctions.

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To contain the exodus to Trinidad and Tobago, authorities in the island nation of 1.3 million just off the coast of the troubled South American nation, previously had resorted to deporting migrants.

In November 2020, they deported 160 Venezuelans after accusing them of “illegal” entry into the country, a few days after a controversial repatriation by sea that included 16 minors.

Between 2018 and 2020, more than 100 Venezuelans have died in shipwrecks while trying to reach Trinidad and Tobago. The dangerous crossing, which taked about three hours, is usually made in unstable boats.

Venezuela, which has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, is in the throes of one of the worst crises in its history, with severe shortages of finances and resources. 

The United Nations estimates that more than five million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015, of whom some 25,000 have gone to Trinidad and Tobago.

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Venezuela now has about 28 million people.

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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