Migrants illegally detained at the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, arriving in Venezuela on Thursday, February 20, 2025. Photo: Pedro Mattey/AFP.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan Minister for Internal Affairs, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello received 177 Venezuelans rescued from the US military base in Guantánamo Bay that illegally occupies Cuban territory. Cabello explained that the operation was the result of a request by the Venezuelan government negotiated with the US government. The New York Times (NYT) reported that one migrant was sent back to the US.
The 177 migrants arrived in Venezuela near midnight on Thursday, February 20, on a Conviasa Airbus 340-200 passenger jet at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetia, La Guaira state. They traveled to Venezuela via Honduras, where they were transferred from the US military base on Cuban territory.
Upon landing, the Venezuelans sang the national anthem and followed the instructions of the authorities, who also provided comprehensive health, food, psychological, and legal assistance. “They thank god for being in their country, for arriving in Venezuela. They thank life for giving them a new opportunity,” Cabello said in statements to local outlets as reported by Últimas Noticias.
He said that the returnees are “good Venezuelans” who were victims of a media campaign against the country they had to leave. “They are leaving hell because Guantánamo is hell. The whole world knows the conditions in that prison,” he added.
The Chavista leader reports that the repatriated individuals “are being treated as human beings, beyond any legal situation that some of them may have.” He explained that the protocols set in motion since the first repatriation flight after US President Donald Trump was inaugurated include background checks on all passengers to evaluate if they have pending proceedings with the Venezuelan justice system.
Cabello said that President Nicolás Maduro instructed that the compatriots be received with love, noting that he fulfilled the previous group of repatriated migrants’ request that those migrants sent to the US military base in Guantánamo be repatriated.
On Thursday, the NYT reported that “Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said 177 migrants had been transferred to Venezuelan custody, and one had been returned to a US immigration facility. In a court filing early Thursday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official had said that 178 Venezuelans were at the base. It was not clear whether the government intended to send more migrants to the base” or the identity of the detainee sent back to the US.
The abrupt transfer of migrants comes at a time when the operation has raised numerous questions in the US about whether the Trump Administration had legitimate legal authority to take people from ICE facilities in the United States to the military base in Cuba for prolonged detention. Immigrant rights lawyers have gone to court to gain access to the migrants, and rights groups are expected to file a broader challenge to the Trump administration’s policy, added the US news outlet.
Statement
Simultaneously, the Venezuelan government released a statement reporting the return of Venezuelan migrants “who were unjustly taken to the Guantánamo naval base” located in Cuba. The statement also addressed the recent designation of the criminal organization Aragua Train [Tren de Aragua] as a terrorist organization.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Iván Gil posted the information on social media, where he also reported that the migrants were initially transferred to Honduras, where they would be transferred to a Conviasa passenger jet.
The Venezuelan government also expressed its gratitude to President of Honduras Xiomara Castro and former President Manuel Zelaya “for all the collaboration provided for the rescue of these compatriots.”
The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Secretary of Defense of Honduras reported that on Thursday, “humanitarian actions are being carried out to transfer Venezuelan migrants from the United States to Venezuela through the joint military base between the United States and Honduras, Soto Cano in Palmerola, Comayagua. There will be a transfer of 170 citizens of Venezuelan origin from a plane with a US flag to a plane with a Venezuelan flag.”
Below is the full unofficial translation of Venezuela’s statement:
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has learned of the decision by the authorities of the United States of America to designate various organizations as “terrorists,” including the defunct Tren de Aragua, a criminal structure that was dismantled in Venezuela thanks to the firm and sustained action of the Venezuelan security forces and justice system.
The aforementioned organized crime group was, at the time, used by foreign agencies, such as the FBI and the DEA, for terrorist and destabilizing purposes against the institutions of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Additionally, it was used by sectors of the Venezuelan far-right to promote chaos, destabilization, and violence in the country.
These actors, in their desire to undermine peace and democratic institutions, resorted to the manipulation of these criminal structures for political purposes, exposing the population to criminal actions that were confronted and eradicated by the Venezuelan state.
Likewise, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reports that, within the framework of the Plan Vuelta a la Patria, it requested the repatriation of a group of compatriots who were unjustly taken to the Guantánamo naval base.
This request has been accepted, and the citizens have been transferred to Honduras, from where they will be recovered by a Conviasa aircraft and brought back to reunite with their families.
Venezuela expresses its gratitude to President Xiomara Castro and the Honduran leader, former President Manuel Zelaya, for all the collaboration provided in the rescue of these compatriots.
In the event of any situation that constitutes any form of crime established in our legal system by any of the repatriated persons, the authorities will act in accordance with the laws of the Republic and strict protection of human rights.
Venezuela will always fight terrorism and criminal organizations of any kind while denouncing the manipulation of these elements for political purposes and condemning any attempt to criminalize the nation and its citizens.
Caracas, February 20, 2025
It is worth noting that on February 19, the US Federal Register published a notice declaring the Sinaloa Cartel, the Aragua Train, and other groups as “international terrorist organizations.”
The measure, which was issued by the US State Department, indicates that those sanctioned “represent a risk to the US national security, foreign policy, and economic interests of the United States.”
Many analysts explain that this decision might be the overture of a new US military interference project for Latin America where direct military actions on Latin American countries could be launched under the pretense of fighting international criminal organizations.
During 2023 and 2024, repatriation flights were agreed upon by the Maduro and Biden Administrations. The program was halted by Venezuelan authorities after the illegal seizing of a Venezuelan Boeing 747 jumbo jet belonging to the Conviasa subsidiary cargo company, EMTRASUR, along with new illegal sanctions against the country.
Additionally, Venezuelan authorities later explained that as part of some of those flights, mercenaries with destabilization plans entered Venezuela with the intention to perpetrate terrorist attacks amid the July 28 presidential election.
Photo gallery
Below are some photos taken by the Venezuelan outlet Con el Mazo Dando:
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SF
