US-Venezuela flights to resume in new sign of thaw

The first direct flight between the United States and Venezuela in seven years was set to take off Thursday a new sign of a thaw after Washington deposed leftist leader Nicolas MaduroThe American Airlines flight is scheduled to take off at 1016 am 1416 GMT from Miami en route to Caracas where the United States has resumed diplomatic relations after years of tensionTo mark the occasion representatives of the US government the City of Miami and the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington Felix Plasencia will greet passengers before the flight departs Gate D55Media are expected to assemble when the flight lands more than three hours later at Simon Bolivar Airport better known as MaiquetiaThe inaugural flights will feature a special Venezuelan menu including corn pancakes known as cachapas and a Venezuelanstyle chicken salad with mayonnaise according to the airlineSome 12 million Venezuelans live in the United States and the thaw is expected to increase the US business presence in the South American nation which has the worlds largest proven gas reservesBut President Donald Trump has also been moving aggressively to remove Venezuelans from the United States terminating a program that shielded migrants from deportation back to the crimeridden nationUS forces on January 3 carried out a deadly raid in Caracas snatching longtime US nemesis Maduro and flying him and his wife to New York to face charges of drug trafficking which they denyMaduro was replaced by his vice president Delcy Rodriguez who has largely cooperated with the United States despite her ideological backgroundTrump has voiced satisfaction with her policies toward US companies and has tried to enforce compliance by threatening violence Venezuela has moved to open the oil and mining sectors to the private sectorTrump in turn has started an easing of sanctions on Venezuela with measures imposed personally on Rodriguez droppedDaily linksAmerican Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air will run the flight daily to and from Caracas and Miami a hub for Venezuelans and other Latin AmericansThe company said it plans to start a second daily roundtrip flight starting May 21American Airlines which is based in Texas and has a large network in Latin America started flights to Venezuela in 1987 and carried the highest number of passengers between the two countriesIt ended flights in 2019 as relations deteriorated with the United States and other Western and Latin American nations declaring Maduro to be illegitimate after an election marred by irregularitiesThe State Department continues to call on Americans to reconsider travel to Venezuela due to widespread crime but in March it ended its blanket warning against any travelThe new flight comes despite trouble in the aviation industry which has been hit hard by a sharp rise in oil prices after the United States and Israel attacked IranThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever