El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has suggested a prisoner swap with Venezuela. He proposes to take 252 Venezuelans, deported from the US, and jail them in El Salvador in exchange for what he refers to as “political prisoners” being held by Venezuela. On Sunday, Bukele requested that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro release “252 of the political prisoners you are holding” in line with his proposal.
The Salvadoran leader remains unclear whether these prisoners, once exchanged, will be imprisoned again. Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, deemed Bukele’s proposition as cynical and charged El Salvador with unlawfully detaining Venezuelans. He also demanded knowledge of the alleged crimes, judicial appearances, access to legal counsel, and family contact of the detained. Saab’s office labelled Bukele as a “neofascist” and declared the treatment of Venezuelans in both the US and El Salvador as violating international human rights law.
Bukele included journalist Roland Carreno, human rights lawyer Rocio San Miguel, and Corina Parisca de Machado, mother of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, among those he advised to be freed from Venezuela. He also mentioned nearly 50 detainees of other nationalities, including US, German, and French citizens, to be involved in the proposed swap. Adam Boehler, US special envoy for hostage response, applauded the initiative and noted that 10 Americans were among those proposed for the exchange.
Bukele’s foreign ministry will officially present the proposal to the Venezuelan government through diplomatic means. In March, the Trump administration deported at least 200 Venezuelans from the US to El Salvador, accusing them of gang affiliations with Tren de Aragua. The US is currently paying El Salvador $6m to house them in a high-security confinement center known as Cecot.
Nonetheless, the Venezuelan government denies the existence of political prisoners, attributing arrests to criminal convictions. Yet, non-governmental organizations claim over 800 individuals are detained for political reasons. The Venezuelan government and the detainees’ lawyers and families also refute claims of gang affiliations among the deportees.
On Saturday, the US Supreme Court temporarily prevented the Trump administration from deporting another group of Venezuelans accused of gang ties under an infrequently used wartime law, following an emergency request from the American Civil Liberties Union. Though the Trump administration urged the court to overturn this decision, it remains committed to its immigration crackdown without plans to defy the court’s ruling.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/21/el-salvador-president-nayib-bukele-prisoner-swap-venezuela
