Venezuela is pushing around the Biden administration by halting flights of migrants being repatriated from the U.S. and Mexico. According to U.S. officials, Venezuela’s communist President Nicolas Maduro is breaking a deal with the United States, which was a “key instrument for the Biden administration to halt illegal migration from the communist South American country” reports ADN America.
Reportedly the “halt in flights came as part of a Venezuelan measure after the White House reinstated some economic sanctions it had lifted against its oil and gas industry as part of a gesture to move the country toward democratic elections.”
Washington has since accused Caracas of following through with its promises to ease pressure and intimidation tactics against opposition candidates, such as the country’s prized Unity candidate, Maria Corina Machado, ADN America adds.
“Corina Machado obtained an impressive 72% level of support, marking a milestone as the candidate with greatest support in the history of the country before elections.” ADN has published several reports outlining the crack downs, kidnappings of opposition candidate campaign workers and intimidation tactics.
In addition to breaking its promises to observe democratic principles for free and fair elections, Venezuela has also asserted a claim it has a right to invade its oil rich neighbor, Guyana, sparking further concerns within the Pentagon and State Department.
According to U.S. officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, chances of reigniting the agreement are slim and relations between both sides continue to slip into a dark chasm. “Increased deportations and containing the surge of migrants from Venezuela, the third-largest nationality after Mexico and Guatemala, could have helped ease some of the pressure on Biden, whose poll ratings have been sliding ahead of November’s presidential election, partly because of the immigration issue,” the Journal reported.
The U.S. has so far repatriated about 1,800 Venezuelans on 15 flights since the October agreement was brokered, a sliver of the migrants who have penetrated the southwest border during the Biden era.
