US citizens freed as El Salvador returns Venezuelan migrants – DW – 07/18/2025
El Salvador on Friday repatriated all Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States as part of a prisoner exchange with Venezuela.
In return, Venezuela freed political prisoners and all American citizens it had been holding.
"As was offered to the Venezuelan regime back in April, we carried out this exchange in return for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that regime had kept in its prisons for years, as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages," El Salvador President Nayib Bukele wrote on social media.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Venezuela released 10 jailed Americans as part of the swap.
"Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland," Rubio said.
At the heart of the deal were more than 250 Venezuelan migrants released by El Salvador. They had been detained in the country's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.
The migrants were held there after being expelled in March by the US President Donald Trump's administration to El Salvador.
The CECOT detainees were deported from the US under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act after the Trump administration labeled the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua an invading force and used that designation to expedite removals of suspected affiliates. However, their families deny the claims.
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Venezuela's government has condemned the detention of its citizens as a violation of human rights and international law.
Long accused of human rights abuses himself, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro used the migrants' detention in El Salvador to flip the script on the United States, prompting even some of his strongest political opponents to agree with his condemnation.
Separately, Venezuela hailed the return of seven migrant children who remained in the United States after their Venezuelan parents were expelled.
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