Venezuela releases 10 Americans in prison in national deal with El Salvador
Venezuela released 10 Americans in prison on Friday in exchange for many immigrants who deported the United States from El Salvador a few months ago, officials said.
The arrangement represents the diplomatic achievement of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which helped President Donald Trump’s goal is to jail Americans and place El Salvador in the exchange he proposed a few months ago.
“Every American in Venezuela who is wrongly detained is now free to return to our homeland,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
Buckley said his country has detained all Venezuelan nationals. The Venezuelan government said it had to release American nationals but was pleased to have its own jailed citizen to pay the “high price”.
At the heart of the deal, El Salvador released more than 250 Venezuelan immigrants who agreed in March to pay the Trump administration $6 million to place them in the notorious El Salvador prison.
When Trump invoked the 18th-century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, the arrangement sparked an immediate counterattack to quickly remove a man accused of belonging to the violent Tren de Aragua Street Gang. The government has provided no evidence to support these claims.
Venezuelans were detained in a super prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center or Cecot, which aims to place alleged gang members in Berkeley’s war against the country’s gangs. Human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths and torture cases within the walls.
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Lucas Hunter, 37, of the Americans released on Friday, said his family said he was kidnapped by Venezuelan border troops in January from Venezuelan border troops inside Colombia, where he was on vacation.
“We can’t wait to see him in person and help him recover from his ordeal,” said his sister Sophie Hunter.
The Venezuelan release was a valuable victory for Maduro as he urged him to work to become president, despite solid evidence that he lost his re-election last year. Maduro has long been detained in El Salvador’s man in El Salvador for months, dumping the script on the U.S. government, forcing even his most powerful political opponent to agree with his condemnation of the treatment of immigrants.
The return of immigrants will allow Maduro to reaffirm his support for shrinking bases, while also showing that he remains firmly in power even if the Trump administration and other countries regard him as an illegal president.
The press release only reiterated its policy of avoiding Maduro government officials and recognized only the National Assembly elected in 2015 as the country’s legitimate government. Rubio signed cables say U.S. officials are free to meet and discuss with members of the National Assembly, “but they cannot interact with representatives of the Maduro regime unless the State Department clears it.”
Venezuelan authorities detained nearly twelve U.S. citizens in the second half of 2024 and linked them to so-called land to destabilize the country.
“We have prayed for this day for nearly a year. My brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the Maduro regime.
Venezuelan officials initially and falsely accused him of participating in the coup, but supported the claim, which Venezuelan officials initially said was a nonprofit globally and advocated for his release and the release of several other Americans.
The Venezuelan government has been detained in its brutal campaign, hit by violators within 11 months since Maduro claimed to have won reelection, including militants, opposition members and union leaders.
The U.S. government, together with several other Western countries, did not recognize Maduro’s claim of victory, but pointed to the statistical tables collected by the opposition coalition, indicating that its candidate Edmundogonzález won the July 2024 election with a profit of more than two-to-one.
The controversy over the outcome sparked immediate protests, with the government responding that more than 2,000 people were detained, mainly poor young people. González fled to Spain to exile and avoided arrest.
Although the United States does not recognize Maduro, the two governments have other recent exchanges.
In May, Venezuela released a U.S. Air Force veteran after about six months of detention. Scott St. Clair’s family said language experts who had traveled four times in Afghanistan had travelled to South America to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
St. Clair handed over to Trump at a meeting on the Caribbean Islands, Richard Grenell.
Three months ago, six other Americans who were found to have been wrongly detained in Venezuela were released after Grinnell met with Maduro at the Presidential Palace.
Grenell urged Maduro to withdraw deported immigrants who have committed hundreds of Venezuelan crimes in the United States since then, but have been deported from the United States since March in El Salvador, but have been deported since more than 200.
Attorneys have little access to those heavily protected in prisons, and the information has been locked, and there is no lockdown except for a large number of national promotional videos showing harsh tattooed men.
As a result, prominent human rights groups and lawyers working with Venezuelans in legal cases had little information on action before boarding the plane.
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
