Ecuador will not receive deported migrants of other nationalities, president says

QUITO (Reuters): Ecuador President Daniel Noboa said on Sunday that his country will not receive deported migrants of other nationalities, and criticized Venezuela’s president for allegedly rejecting flights of Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States.

Noboa, who will face off against leftist Luisa Gonzalez in an April 13 run-off election, said on X that Ecuador would always receive its own citizens deported from other countries because “we do not abandon our people.”

In his post, Noboa attacked Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for “rejecting” flights of deported Venezuelans, calling it a “complete lack of empathy.”

A day earlier, Maduro said that scheduled flights to bring home Venezuelan migrants from the United States had been affected by “this unexplained, tremendous commotion,” after the Trump administration canceled a license allowing Chevron to operate in the South American country.

Maduro, however, did not mention the company’s name directly in reference to the migrant flights. He said that communication between the two countries had been damaged and flights affected.

“This is how authoritarian and extremist regimes act, without caring about the fate of those fleeing the crisis they themselves caused,” Noboa said in his post.

Maduro and his government have always rejected sanctions by the United States and others, saying they are illegitimate measures that amount to an “economic war” designed to cripple Venezuela.

Maduro and his allies have cheered what they say is the country’s resilience despite the measures, though they have historically blamed some economic hardships and shortages on sanctions.