More than 26,000 Venezuelans returned to the country with the “Plan Vuelta a la Patria”

The government of Venezuela assured that since 2018 26,947 have returned to the Caribbean country venezuelans of 19 countries with the so-called “Plan Vuelta a la Patria” after the return of 99 citizens from Ecuador this weekend.

“The excitement of coming home. Venezuela receives 99 nationals from Ecuador on a flight back to the Homeland. There are already 154 flights totaling about 27,000 returnees, “said the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry on its Twitter account.

Likewise, the agency detailed in a press release that the plan, created in 2018, has made 154 flights and a maritime transfer from 19 countries.

“The balance to date shows 26,947 returnees from 19 countries, making it the most far-reaching strategy of its kind in the world, implemented by a government,” he said.

The Foreign Ministry indicated that 5,273 Venezuelans have returned from Ecuador, ranking third with the highest number of returnees, after Brazil and Peru with 7,285 and 6,590, respectively.

According to official data, around 450,000 Venezuelan migrants reside in Ecuador, a part of which took advantage of regularization programs between 2019 and 2020, although the majority still do not have the documentation required by the authorities, which makes their inclusion in the law difficult. society.

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, promised on October 7 to reinforce the plan so that “all Venezuelans who want to return from Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia” can return.

At the beginning of October, another 200 Venezuelans returned from Chile with the same program, after the attacks on migrants that occurred at the end of September in the city of Iquique, in northern Chile, in a massive concentration that ended in violent incidents.

But others decided to remain in that country, despite Maduro’s offer, which was transmitted, personally, by the Venezuelan ambassador to the Andean country, Arévalo Méndez, whose proposal was rejected on the grounds that the political and economic conditions do not exist for return to their home nation.

The Interagency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants of Venezuela (R4V), ensures that more than 5.9 million refugees and migrants have left the country, of which 82% live in Latin American and Caribbean countries.