Venezuela to continue accepting deported migrants despite Trump’s airspace closure assertion

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — U.S.-operated flights returning deported migrants to Venezuela will continue despite President Donald Trump’s assertion that the airspace of the South American country should be considered closed.

The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Tuesday announced that the twice weekly flights will go on following a request from the Trump administration. That reverses a Venezuelan government Saturday announcement indicating that U.S. immigration authorities had unilaterally suspended the flights.

An overflight and landing application submitted Monday by U.S.-based Eastern Airlines requests permission for an arrival Wednesday. The application was made public Tuesday by Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister.

Venezuelans have been steadily deported to their home country this year after Maduro, under pressure from the White House, did away with his long-standing policy of not accepting deportees from the U.S.

Immigrants arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on flights operated by a U.S. government contractor or Venezuela’s state-owned airline. More than 13,000 immigrants have returned so far this year on the chartered flights, the latest of which arrived Friday

The flights have continued despite U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean and off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.

The Trump administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.

As tensions continue to escalate between the two countries, Pope Leo XVI on Tuesday called for the U.S. to pursue dialogue and even economic pressure on Venezuela to achieve its goals, rather than threats of military action.

Leo, history’s first American pope, told reporters aboard the papal plane returning from Lebanon that the Venezuelan bishops conference and the Vatican Embassy in Caracas were trying to calm the situation and look out for the plight of ordinary Venezuelans.

“The voices coming from the United States change, with a certain frequency at times,” he said. “On the one hand, it seems there was telephone conversation between the two presidents, on the other, there’s this danger, this possibility of an activity, an operation including invading the territory of Venezuela.”

He stressed that he didn’t have further information. “Again I believe it’s better to look for ways of dialogue, perhaps pressure — including economic pressure — but looking for other ways to change, if that’s what the United States wants to do.”

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Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield, aboard the papal plane, contributed to this report.