Guatemala will increase number of deportation flights it accepts from US

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala will accept 40 per cent more deportation flights from the United States, including both Guatemalan deportees and those of other nationalities, President Bernardo Arevalo said after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Feb 5.

Mr Rubio, speaking at a press conference alongside Mr Arevalo following their meeting in Guatemala City, said he had pledged US support to the Central American country’s efforts to return people not from Guatemala to their homeland.

Washington’s top diplomat, who has been on a tour of Central America to discuss migration in his first trip abroad as secretary of State, said Mr Arevalo’s offer to increase the number of flights Guatemala accepts was “very important for us in terms of the migratory situation that we’re facing”.

“His willingness to accept not just nationals but those from other nationalities as they seek to ultimately return to their own homelands is also important, and we’ve pledged our support with those efforts,” Mr Rubio said.

Under the previous US administration of President Joe Biden, Guatemala was receiving roughly 14 deportation flights per week, Reuters reported in December, citing a Guatemalan official.

The roughly 66,000 Guatemalans deported in fiscal year 2024 was the most of Mr Biden’s presidency and more than any single year during Mr Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency, according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics.

The details of the increase in flights will be discussed in working groups to be established, Mr Arevalo said.

Mr Arevalo said accepting criminals was not discussed in Feb 5’s meeting, after El Salvador on Feb 3 offered to house in its jails “dangerous criminals” from anywhere in the world deported by the United States.

As well as smoothing the way for the

US to send migrants back to their own countries

, Mr Rubio in his visits this week has sought to secure “third country” agreements, in which nations accept citizens of other countries that will not accept deportees.

Cuba and Venezuela, for instance, have frosty relations with the US and have in the past limited the number of deportees they will accept, although the Trump administration says

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has agreed to accept back his country’s citizens

.

Since taking office on Jan 20, President Donald Trump has stepped up the number of migrants the US deports to Latin America, including using military planes for repatriation flights.

The Trump administration on Feb 3 removed protection against deportation from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the US.

The US military aircraft on Feb 4 began flying detained migrants to Guantanamo Bay, after Mr Trump called for a migrant detention facility at the base to be expanded to hold more than 30,000 migrants.  REUTERS