El Salvador and the United States negotiate prisoner exchange with Venezuela

The U.S. and El Salvador government announced Friday that El Salvador is repatriating dozens of detained Venezuelans in exchange for U.S. nationals held in Venezuela.

Central American countries sent about 250 prisoners in prison in their infamous CECOT (Terrorism Detention Center) prisons in exchange for the release of 10 U.S. nationals from Venezuela.

The parallel load of immigrants deported from the United States to El Salvador was originally scheduled for Mequet, Venezuela, late Friday.

Relations between El Salvador leader Bookeler and U.S. President Donald Trump have changed drastically in recent months, especially as Bookeler agrees to detain deported immigrants.

With the release, there are no more U.S. nationals in Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro administration held in Venezuela, a senior administration official told reporters Friday.

“Today, we handed over all Venezuelan nationals detained in our country and were accused of being part of the criminal organization Trön de Alaguya (TDA),” Buckley said in an article published on X.

He said the exchange was conducted as a “large number of Venezuelan political prisoners” as well as U.S. citizens.

U.S. Secretary of State Marc Rubio confirmed the exchange in another article and thanked Berkler and U.S. officials.

According to the Alien Enemy Act of 1798, Venezuelans were initially expelled from the Trump administration in El Salvador by the United States, which gave the U.S. president the authority to detain and expel locals or citizens of “enemy” countries without the usual procedures.

El Salvador made an “independence decision” to release Venezuelan prisoners, believed to be members of the gang, for humanitarian reasons, senior Trump administration officials told reporters Friday.

Venezuelan exchange promoted by El Salvador Venezuelans highlighted the strong relationship between Trump and Berkle – self-styled “the coolest dictator in the world”.

“This deal was impossible without President Bucker,” government officials said. “We extended deep gratitude.”

El Salvador’s leaders visited Trump at the White House in April, and the two looked friendly when talking to reporters, often laughing and joking together.

Buckler supports deporting immigrants from the United States to the Cecot highest security prison in El Salvador.

Trump said at the time that Buckley was “really helping” the United States by promoting these detentions, as the President of El Salvador replied that his country was “very eager to help.”

Around the same time, Bucker first proposed to replace Venezuelan deportees with “political prisoners”, including families of Venezuelan opposition figures, journalists and activists detained in the 2024 government election crackdown.

“The only reason they were imprisoned is against you and your election fraud,” he wrote to Maduro on X.

“However, I came up with a humanitarian agreement that includes 100% of the 252 Venezuelans deported in exchange for the release and surrender of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.”

The senior administration official said that while the deal is only related to U.S. nationals, the Trump administration is still actively working to release “dozens” of political prisoners held by the Maduro administration.