(AFP) – The first direct flight between the United States and Venezuela in seven years took off Thursday, a new sign of a thaw after Washington deposed leftist leader Nicolas Maduro. The American Airlines flight took off at 10:26 am (1426 GMT) from Miami en route to Caracas, where the United States has resumed diplomatic relations after years of tension.
The first flight’s manifest was dominated by officials and journalists, with senior officials from Washington set to fly to Caracas to meet the government, a prospect unthinkable just months ago. Representatives of the city of Miami, a hub for Latin Americans that sees itself as a gateway to the region, greeted passengers at the gate, as did the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington, Felix Plasencia. The flight is scheduled to land more than three hours later at Simon Bolivar Airport, better known as Maiquetia.
The inaugural flights are featuring a special Venezuelan menu including corn pancakes known as cachapas and a Venezuelan-style chicken salad, according to the airline. Some 1.2 million Venezuelans live in the United States, and the thaw is expected to boost the US business presence in the South American nation, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
But President Donald Trump has also been moving aggressively to remove Venezuelans from the United States, terminating a program that shielded migrants from deportation back to the crime-ridden nation. US forces on January 3 carried out a deadly raid in Caracas, snatching longtime US nemesis Maduro and flying him and his wife to New York to face charges of drug trafficking, which they deny.
Maduro was replaced by his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who has largely cooperated with the United States despite her ideological background. Trump has voiced satisfaction with her policies toward US companies and has tried to enforce compliance by threatening violence. Venezuela has moved to open its oil and mining sectors to private investment. Trump in turn has started an easing of sanctions on Venezuela, with measures imposed personally on Rodriguez dropped.
American Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air will run the daily round-trip flight between Caracas and Miami. The company said it plans to start a second daily round-trip flight starting May 21. American Airlines, which is based in Texas and has a large network in Latin America, started flights to Venezuela in 1987 and carried the highest number of passengers between the two countries. It ended flights in 2019 as relations deteriorated, with the United States and other Western and Latin American nations declaring Maduro to be illegitimate after an election marred by irregularities.
The State Department continues to call on Americans to reconsider travel to Venezuela due to widespread crime but in March ended its blanket warning against any travel. The new flight comes despite trouble in the aviation industry, which has been hit hard by a sharp rise in oil prices after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.
– Jesus Olarte
© 2024 AFP
