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.