The First Panama-Caracas Flight Will Repatriate 70 Venezuelans on a Voluntary Basis
The new direct flight is part of Panama’s voluntary return program, which has already carried out 60 operations since its implementation. The direct flight to Caracas eliminates the air triangulation that Panama previously used for the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced on Thursday the first direct flight from Panama to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, with 70 Venezuelan immigrants enrolled in the Panamanian voluntary return program. “This Monday, flight number 60 will take place in our voluntary return program. It is the first flight to Caracas, with 70 Venezuelan migrants voluntarily returning to their country, Venezuela, as I said, directly to Caracas. We no longer have to go through Colombia and all the hassle that entailed,” the president declared.
Mulino did not give further details, so for the moment it is unknown which airline will carry out the transfer to Caracas, which is served by the Maiquetía International Airport, where several international airlines have temporarily suspended flights due to operational risks associated with the unprecedented US anti-drug military operation in the Caribbean and the Pacific. The ruler again highlighted the drastic drop in the last year and a half in the flow of irregular migrants arriving in Panama on their way to North America, especially the United States, which became a humanitarian crisis whose attention drained millions of dollars from the Panamanian State, according to the country’s authorities.
In 2025, 3,054 irregular travelers arrived in Panama, a number similar to the levels of 2012 and 2013, when 3,430 and 3,140 arrived, respectively, according to a graph shown during Mulino’s weekly press conference. The number of irregular migrants registered this year is far below the 302,203 travelers who arrived in Panama on their way to the U.S. in 2024, the 520,085 in 2023, the most critical year of the crisis, the 248,283 in 2022 and the 133,726 in 2021, according to the same official graph. The drastic drop in migration flows to North America is attributed to the harsh immigration policy of the US President Donald Trump’s administration, based on mass deportations and strong internal restrictions for this population, in addition to Panamanian measures such as the closure of roads in the Darien jungle, the natural border between Panama and Colombia.
