El Salvador offers Venezuela swap - 252 deported migrants for political prisoners

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has offered to exchange more than 200 Venezuelan migrants deported from the US for an equal number of political prisoners held by Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

“I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and delivery of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners that you hold,” the Salvadoran leader said in a post on X.

Among the detainees Bukele named were:

• Rafael Tudelares, son-in-law of former presidential candidate Edmundo González;

• journalist Roland Carreño;

• lawyer and activist Rocío San Miguel;

• Corina Pariska de Machado, mother of María Corina Machado;

• and other detained activists from the US, Germany, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Colombia, and other countries.

Some Venezuelan officials, including National Assembly head Jorge Rodríguez, said the government would do “whatever it takes” to secure the release of its citizens who were deported by the US and ended up in El Salvador’s notorious high-security prison.

At the same time, Maduro has repeatedly criticized Bukele’s treatment of the deported Venezuelans, claiming they are being “kidnapped” in Salvadoran prisons.

According to Bloomberg, both Bukele and former US president Donald Trump came under pressure after the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran citizen who was sent to the Cecot prison - El Salvador’s notorious “Terrorist Confinement Center.” US courts demanded that Trump help bring Abrego back to the US, though his administration has appealed those calls.

US deportation of criminals to El Salvador

Last week, Trump said he would “like to” deport American criminals to El Salvador.

“I call them homegrown criminals. We’re looking into it, and we want to do it. I would gladly do it,” he said.