21,700 nationals have arrived in the country with Plan Vuelta a la Patria

Conviasa has managed to maintain its operations and expand its humanitarian mission in support of the Plan Vuelta a la Patria (Return to the Homeland Plan) and have returned to the country 21,700 nationals, despite the sanctions imposed by the US government and the restriction of flights as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This Tuesday afternoon, 96 nationals arrived from Guayaquil, Ecuador at the Maiquetía International Airport “Simón Bolívar”, according to a press release from Conviasa.

The Vice Minister for Air Transportation of the Ministry of People’s Power for Transportation and president of Conviasa, Ramón Velásquez Araguayán, offered a balance of the Venezuelans repatriated through the airline:

«With this flight we are increasing to 21,700 nationals who have entered for free, without generating extraordinary expenses for their families, it is an expense assumed by the airline, an investment by the Revolutionary Government, by bringing back to Venezuela those compatriots who have voluntarily stated that they have asked our President Nicolás Maduro to return to their homeland,” he reported.

During the Christmas season, this humanitarian mission allows thousands of families to be reunited, however, according to the evaluation carried out by the Foreign Ministry in the consulates in 16 countries, there are around 77,000 Venezuelans in vulnerable condition, of which 62,000 are in the nations of the Lima Group.

“These countries led to the departure of our compatriots with lies, sponsoring them to emigrate from Venezuela, it is there where we have the largest number of compatriots requesting to return to the country,” said Velásquez Araguayán.

The Vice Minister for Air Transport indicated that people who enter Venezuela comply with strict biosafety control. “From the first moment that our consulates make the list, they demand to present a PCR test with a negative result, then when they arrive in their homeland they are tested again to rule out Covid-19 completely free”,

The President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, ordered to continue with the Vuelta a la Patria Plan, for which Conviasa has scheduled before completing this year the execution of three flights that will come from Ecuador, Peru and Argentina.

The passengers who arrived on this flight described their experience while being out of their country and expressed their impressions of the biosafety protocols that were implemented upon arrival in Venezuela.

In this sense, Franklener Ramírez, who had been in Ecuador for three years, said that “they have all the biosafety measures, they are aware of everything, each passenger who gets on, each passenger who gets off, there is nothing like our land”.

For his part, Leninyer Salcedo, indicated that “they are attending very well to the compatriots who are arriving, the measures are adequate so that there is no type of spread of Covid-19.”