A significant international deal has been reached between Venezuela and the United States, allowing for the release of American citizens and political prisoners held in Venezuela in exchange for Venezuelans deported from the US and imprisoned in El Salvador. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that 10 Americans had been released as part of the deal, stating, “Thanks to @POTUS’s [the President of the United States’] leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom.”
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele also celebrated the deal, saying that all of the Venezuelan deportees detained in his country have been “handed over”. “We carried out this exchange in return for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that regime had kept in its prisons for years, as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages,” Bukele wrote in a statement on social media.
The Venezuelan government confirmed it had received 252 citizens deported from the US and held in El Salvador. In addition, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told the media that seven children separated from their parents during deportations had also been sent from the US to Venezuela.
The deal raises questions about the treatment of individuals deported from the US to third-party countries they have no relation to. Venezuela had protested the deportation of its citizens from the US to El Salvador, where more than 200 people were sent to a maximum-security prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) in March.
Critics have pointed out that El Salvador has faced criticism for alleged human rights abuses in its prisons, including beatings, torture, and sleep deprivation. The CECOT prison is part of Bukele’s efforts at mass incarceration and has space to hold up to 40,000 people.
Lawyers representing some of the deported Venezuelans have issued complaints alleging that their clients were targeted based on their clothing choices or tattoos, which US immigration officials then used to falsely tie them to gangs. The Trump administration has maintained that deportations to third-party countries like El Salvador are necessary for immigrants whose home countries will not accept them.
The deal is the latest example of complex international negotiations underpinning President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportation in the US. The Maduro government has signaled that it is willing to accept Venezuelan deportees from the US, and the two countries have engaged in negotiations to release American citizens and political prisoners held in Venezuela.
The US government has denied the legitimacy of Maduro’s presidency, and his contested election to a third term in 2024 has further weakened his standing on the world stage. The deal also raises questions about previous Trump administration claims that it was unable to release the deported men from the CECOT prison.
In an Oval Office appearance in April, Bukele spoke to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man briefly held in CECOT after he was wrongfully deported in March. “The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele told a reporter.