Venezuela reaches agreement with US to resume repatriation flights of migrants

CARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuela has reached an agreement with the United States to resume repatriation flights of migrants, President Nicolas Maduro announced in a televised address on Saturday.

Maduro said the flights would commence on Sunday.

"Tomorrow, thanks to the government's perseverance, we'll resume flights to continue rescuing and freeing migrants from prisons in the United States," Maduro said.

The move comes amid a diplomatic spat between the United States and Venezuela over the recent deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.

The White House did not reply to a request for comment.

As part of President Donald Trump's rapid U.S. deportation program, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants were sent to a prison in El Salvador.

"To Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's President, we say that you're responsible," Maduro said, adding that migrants hadn't committed crimes in the U.S. or El Salvador.

"You have to guarantee their health and sooner rather than later, you have to free them and hand them over," Maduro said.

El Salvador's government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Maduro's speech came after Venezuela's Parliament President Jorge Rodriguez released a statement earlier in the day announcing the deal to resume flights.

"Migrating isn't a crime, and we won't rest until everyone who wants to return is back and we rescue our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador," the statement said.

The families and lawyers have been seeking news about relatives and clients whom they could no longer reach, and demanding their return to Venezuela.

The United States said the deportees sent to El Salvador were members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang, a claim that Venezuela's interior minister denied.

The Trump administration now faces a March 25 deadline to respond to a judicial request for more details on the deportations to El Salvador, as Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg considers whether officials violated his order temporarily blocking the expulsions.

(Reporting by Mayela Armas in Caracas, Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Writing by Alexander Villegas; editing by Diane Craft)