El Salvador repatriates to Caracas to Venezuelans deported by the US to the megacárcel of the CECOT in exchange for the release of a group of prisoners

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The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, reported Friday that more than 250 Venezuelans that the Trump government had deported in March his country and were held at the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) were repatriated to Caracas.

The news was also confirmed by the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who pointed out in an X message that in turn 10 Americans arrested in Venezuela were released and were on the route from the South American country.

In addition, the negotiation of Washington and Caracas also included “the liberation of Venezuelan political prisoners,” Rubio said without indicating a number.

Bukele reported in that same social network that his government had given “all Venezuelan citizens detained in the country, accused of being part of the criminal organization of Aragua (ADD).”

“As offered to the Venezuelan regime in April, we have carried out this exchange in exchange for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that the regime had maintained in their prisons for years, as well as all American citizens who had as hostages,” he added.

His message was accompanied by a video in which the approach to Venezuelans arrested in the CECOT was shown last March.

For his part, the Chancellor of Venezuela, Yván Gil, informed that in total there are 252 Venezuelans who return to his country in exchange for the release of Americans.

“Venezuela has paid a high price to get the freedom of these nationals, through an exchange with the authorities of the United States of America of a group of American citizens,” Gil said in Foreign Minister Gil in a statement.

For weeks, Washington and Caracas were negotiating the exchange, but the offers of both parties had stagnated the agreement, according to sources of the newspaper The New York Times.

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The Venezuelan detainees who were held in El Salvador were accused in the US of several crimes, including being members of the Aragua train, a criminal organization born in a Venezuelan prison, which has spread throughout the continent and that Washington has included in its list of “transnational terrorist organizations.”

However, lawyers of the detainees and activists have denounced that the Department of Justice accused many without evidence and that deportations are part of Trump's immigration policy.

In Venezuela, the Government of Nicolás Maduro kept several accused Americans, among other issues, participating in political plots.

Criminal Forum, an independent NGO, has indicated that in the country there are about 90 foreigners on which questionable accusations hang.