By Aram Roston, Ted Hesson and Vivian Sequera
WASHINGTON/CARACAS (Reuters) -El Salvador is sending home Venezuelans detained in the country in a prison exchange for Americans held in Venezuela, President Nayib Bukele said on Friday.
Bukele, in a post on X, said those freed in Venezuela were en route to El Salvador from where they would continue “their journey home.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the release of “ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela” and thanked Bukele for his help in securing the agreement.
Reuters reported earlier on Friday that the prison swap was happening.
The Venezuelan government confirmed that 252 Venezuelans held in El Salvador had been freed, calling the El Salvador prison where they have been held a “concentration camp”.
The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador in March after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without going through normal immigration procedures.
Family members of many of the Venezuelans and their lawyers deny they had gang ties, and say they were not given a chance to contest the Trump administration’s allegations in court.
Venezuela’s government has always decried the detention of its citizens as a violation of human rights and international law. But the government’s critics say the country holds activists and opposition figures in similar conditions in Venezuela.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Aram Roston in Washington; Additional reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas, Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota, Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Sarah Kinosian in Mexico City; Editing by Don Durfee, Rod Nickel and Rosalba O’Brien)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.