UPDATE 1-Venezuela approves migrant repatriation flight from U.S.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has approved a migrant repatriation flight from the United States, Venezuelan authorities said on Tuesday, days after Caracas said comments by U.S. President Donald Trump had effectively halted the program. "The Aeronautic Authority of Venezuela has received a request from the government of the United States to restart migrant repatriation flights from that country to Venezuela," the transportation ministry said in a statement on Tuesday morning.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has approved a migrant repatriation flight from the United States, Venezuelan authorities said on Tuesday, days after Caracas said comments by U.S. President Donald Trump had effectively halted the program.

"The Aeronautic Authority of Venezuela has received a request from the government of the United States to restart migrant repatriation flights from that country to Venezuela," the transportation ministry said in a statement on Tuesday morning. An Eastern Airlines flight flying from Phoenix has been authorized to land at Maiquetia, near Caracas, the ministry added. Repatriation flights had been occurring twice a week, but the Venezuelan government said over the weekend that comments by Trump that Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed, his latest salvo in mounting tensions between the two countries, amounted to a unilateral halt in the flights.

Trump's Saturday comments that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered "closed in its entirety" stirred anxiety and confusion in Caracas as his administration ramps up pressure on Maduro's government. The Venezuelan government has previously said that nearly 14,000 Venezuelans had returned home from the U.S. on the flights between February and November, amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in the U.S.

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