The Venezuelan men have spent months in El Salvador’s high-security prison known as CECOT.
The governments of the United States and El Salvador announced Friday they have facilitated a prisoner swap, securing the release of 10 U.S. citizens held in Venezuela in exchange for the return of more than 250 Venezuelan men who had been deported from the United States and imprisoned in El Salvador.
“Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said in a post on X, noting that many of them face multiple charges related to violent crimes.
In addition to the American citizens, the swap also included “a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners” who had been imprisoned for years by the regime of Nicolás Maduro, Bukele added.
The operation was the result of “months of negotiations” involving both U.S. and Salvadoran officials, according to Bukele, whose country currently does not have formal diplomatic relations with Venezuela.
In 2019, El Salvador expelled the Venezuelan diplomatic mission after Maduro’s highly disputed reelection, instead recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president at the time. The United States similarly does not recognize Maduro, who remains under federal indictment on narco-terrorism charges, with a $25 million reward for his arrest.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday confirmed the exchange in a separate statement.
“Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,” Rubio said, condemning the Maduro regime for imprisoning Americans under “highly questionable circumstances and without proper due process.”
“We also welcome the release of Venezuelan political prisoners and detainees that were also released from Venezuelan prisons,” he added. “The Trump Administration continues to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. The regime’s use of unjust detention as a tool of political repression must end.”
The State Department has not yet given details about the 10 freed Americans.
The Epoch Times has confirmed one of them is Wilbert Castañeda, a former U.S. Navy SEAL.
By Bill Pan
