The president of El Salvador offered to repatriate 252 Venezuelans who were deported and imprisoned in their country if Venezuela frees the same number of political prisoners.
Nayib Bukele directly appealed to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a social media post.
He said many of Venezuelan deportees committed “rape and murder,” but Venezuelan political prisoners were jailed simply because they opposed Maduro, whose reelection last year was widely contested.
The Venezuelan government claims it has no political prisoners — claims rejected by rights groups.
In a post on X, Bukele wrote: [Maduro] A humanitarian agreement seeking the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans deported in exchange for the same number of releases from the thousands of political prisoners you hold.
He also mentioned almost 50 prisoners of other nationalities, including US citizens, as part of the proposed swap.
The Venezuelan government has not publicly commented on Buquer’s offer.
Over 200 Venezuelans have been sent from the United States to El Salvador in recent weeks.
President Donald Trump’s administration has accused them of being a member of Tren de Aragua’s crimes.
Washington pays El Salvador and is deported at the infamous high-security terrorism confinement center.
Since taking office in January, Trump’s hard-hit immigration policies have encountered many legal hurdles.
In its latest development, the US Supreme Court on Saturday ordered Washington to suspend the deportation of another group of Venezuelan gang members.
The White House is calling the challenge of using the law in “ruthless litigation” for massive deportation.
Trump accused members of the Venezuelan gang under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798. This gives the President the authority to detain and control the indigenous people or citizens of a “enemy” nation without the usual process.
This law was used only three times before, but all were at war.
