American plane with migrants lands in Venezuela

(Patria) - A plane from the United States with 266 Venezuelan migrants landed in Venezuela on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said, Reuters reported.

The plane, an Eastern Air Lines flight from Phoenix, was authorized to land in Maiquetia, near Caracas, the transport ministry said on Tuesday, after bilateral flights were briefly suspended due to increased tensions between the two countries.

Venezuela announced over the weekend that the United States' unilateral closure of Venezuelan airspace had ended repatriation flights, but on Tuesday the ministry said it had received Washington's request to resume them.

Earlier on Wednesday, Gil told reporters at the airport that since the beginning of the year, at least 18,354 Venezuelans have arrived in the country on 95 flights, 76 of which were directly from the United States.