El Salvador proposes sending US-deported Venezuelans to Venezuela
by Nelson Renteria reuters · KSL.comEstimated read time: 2-3 minutes
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- El Salvador's President Bukele proposed exchanging U.S.-deported Venezuelans for Venezuelan political prisoners.
- Venezuela's government hasn't responded; Bukele included journalist Roland Carreno in the exchange.
- The U.S. deported 200 Venezuelans, accused of gang ties, to El Salvador.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed a deal to send 252 Venezuelans deported from the U.S. and imprisoned in his country to Venezuela, in exchange for taking "political prisoners" held by Venezuela.
In a post on X, Bukele asked that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hand over 252 "of the political prisoners you are holding," under his proposed deal.
The Salvadoran leader did not say whether the prisoners would be incarcerated again upon the exchange.
Venezuela's Ministry of Communication did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Among those Bukele proposed for release from Venezuela were journalist Roland Carreno, human rights lawyer Rocio San Miguel and Corina Parisca de Machado, mother of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado whom he said is subjected to daily threats at her home.
He also mentioned nearly 50 detainees of other nationalities, including U.S., German and French citizens, as part of the proposed exchange.
Last month, the administration of President Donald Trump deported at least 200 Venezuelans from the United States to El Salvador, accusing them of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. The U.S. is paying El Salvador $6 million to detain the migrants in its high-security Terrorism Confinement Center.
The Venezuelan government has said it has no political prisoners and that imprisoned people have been convicted of crimes. However, nongovernmental organizations claim more than 800 people are detained for political reasons.
The Venezuelan government has also denied that the Venezuelans deported by the U.S. have gang affiliations, and lawyers and family members of the detainees have asserted that the migrants have no ties to criminal groups.
On Saturday, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting another group of Venezuelan migrants accused of gang ties under a rarely used wartime law.
Contributing: Mayela Armas
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.