El Salvadorian President Buckley proposes exchange with Maduro for expelled Venezuela
SALVADOR (AP) – El Salvador President Nayib Bukele proposed a prisoner exchange with Venezuela on Sunday, indicating that he will expel Venezuela from the United States, where his government has been held in so-called “political prisoners.”
In an article on the social media platform X against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele lists many family members of senior Venezuelan opposition figures, journalists and activists detained in South American government elections last year.
“The only reason they were imprisoned was against you and your election fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I would like to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes 100% of the 252 Venezuelans deported in exchange for the release and surrender of thousands of political prisoners you hold.”
Among the lists are the son of former presidential candidate Edmundogonzález, a political leader who has sought asylum in Argentina in Venezuela, who is referring to 50 detained citizens from many different countries around the world.
Bucker also listed the opposition leader’s mother, María Corina Machado, whose political leader was surrounded by Venezuelan police in January.
Bucker said he would ask El Salvador’s Foreign Ministry to keep in touch with the Maduro government, which did not immediately respond to the position.
The proposal comes after El Salvador has been subjected to a sharp scrutiny of Venezuelans and El Salvadors expelled by the Trump administration, accused of being allegedly members of the gang and without evidence. The deported were locked in the “Great Prisoners” in the “Center of Terrorism (CECOT)” built during the Burkler government's crackdown on gangs in the country.
The dispute continued only after revealing the deportation of U.S. citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and his return broke out in the court battle.
Archbishop of El Salvador José Luis Escobar Alas called on Bukele to “not “allow our country to become a large international prison” on Sunday.
Despite the controversy, Bucker insisted on Sunday that all of his men in prison were “part of the gang operations such as Tren de Aragua in the United States.”
