US requests restart of deportation flights to Venezuela, Caracas says

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: VTV
2 Dec 2025 17:47
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The United States has asked Venezuela to resume migrant return flights just as Washington intensifies pressure on Caracas by urging airlines to avoid Venezuelan airspace.

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A COPA Airlines plane takes off at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, days after the government revoked operating rights for international airlines that suspended flights following a warning from the US Federal Aviation Administration (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Venezuela’s civil aviation authority says it has received a formal request from the United States to restart flights returning Venezuelan migrants from US territory, even as Washington moves to pressure airlines into avoiding the country’s airspace.

According to a statement cited by state broadcaster VTV, Venezuelan authorities confirmed that they had been contacted by US counterparts regarding the “resumption of flights for Venezuelan migrants from the United States to Venezuela.”

No timeline or framework for the flights has yet been announced publicly, and Caracas has not indicated whether it will accept the proposal or attach political conditions of its own.

The US submission follows US President Donald Trump’s call for airlines to treat Venezuelan airspace as closed, a sweeping and extraterritorial instruction that sought to override Venezuela’s sovereign control of its skies and further isolate the country.

It also comes as Washington intensifies its deportation machinery, pushing rapid removals of Venezuelan nationals while ignoring the structural causes of displacement created by its own sanctions.

Sovereignty Challenged

The Venezuelan government sharply condemned Trump’s directive to airports, describing it as a blatant attempt to undermine the country’s territorial integrity.

The UN has weighed in on the dispute, with spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric reminding all governments that airspace issues must be handled through established legal mechanisms rather than unilateral political orders.

Caracas argues that the US measure is part of a broader campaign of coercive pressure that includes sanctions, commercial restrictions, and attempts to disrupt the country's connectivity with the world.

Venezuelan authorities maintain that only the national aviation regulator, acting in line with international law, can determine the status of the country’s airspace, and insist that Washington’s directive represents an unlawful intrusion into Venezuelan sovereignty.

Earlier today, Colombian President Gustavo Petro also rejected Washington’s attempt to impose a closure on Venezuela’s airspace, stressing that the United States “has no right to close Venezuelan airspace.” Petro said the US may choose to restrict its own carriers, “but not international airlines.”