The US government and a Venezuelan state airline flew 177 Venezuelan migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras and on to Venezuela on Thursday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security said.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello was at the airport outside Caracas when the plane landed at around 10 p.m. (0200 GMT) and went aboard to greet the migrants.
All those returning would be subject to health checks and any with pending criminal charges would be placed in the hands of the courts, Cabello said on state television. The return of the Venezuelan migrants from Guantanamo was "an effort of negotiation", he said.
Venezuela requested the repatriation of citizens who were "unjustly" taken to Guantanamo naval base, Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said in a statement posted on Telegram earlier on Thursday.
The Honduran government had said some 170 Venezuelan migrants were set to arrive in the Central American nation from the United States, before being transported "immediately" back to Venezuela.
The transfer took place at Soto Cano, a joint US-Honduras military air base, and the migrants were transported back home on Venezuelan airline Conviasa.
Lawyers representing at least half a dozen of the deportees said they learned about the deportations on Thursday afternoon.
The deportations come after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last week seeking access to dozens of migrants flown to a US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying they were being denied the right to an attorney.
The deportees included 126 people with criminal charges or convictions, 80 of whom were allegedly affiliated with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said, adding that 51 had no criminal record.
There are no migrant detainees left at Guantanamo after Thursday's deportations, the spokesperson said.
The US has designated Tren de Aragua a global terrorist organization along with other organized crime groups, as President Donald Trump steps up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members in the United States.
