US and Venezuelan officials confirmed that 177 Venezuelans boarded an aircraft from the Venezuelan-owned airline Conviasa bound for Caracas.

Nearly 200 Venezuelan immigrants to the U.S. were returned to their home country after being detained at Guantanamo Bay, in a flurry of flights that forged an unprecedented pathway for U.S. deportations.

Many of the migrants were being kept in a detention facility that has historically held suspected terrorists. They were flown back to Venezuela Thursday after a stop in Honduras.

U.S. immigration and military authorities say they are holding exclusively Venezuelan immigrants subject to final deportation orders at the U.S. naval station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba