El Salvador releases hundreds of US deportees from notorious prison in US-Venezuela swap
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media the Americans, the last known to be detained in Venezuela, were now 'on their way to freedom.'
'Until today, more Americans were wrongfully held in Venezuela than any other country in the world,' Rubio said in a statement. 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.'
Among the Americans released were Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter and Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, a US official confirmed.
The sister of Hunter, 37, previously told CNN he had vacationed in the region in late 2024 to kite surf. The nonprofit Global Reach said he was 'kidnapped by Venezuelan border guards' from inside Colombia in January.
'My family and I are so happy to hear that my brother, Lucas, was released by Venezuela today. Lucas was vacationing in Colombia when he was kidnapped by Venezuelan border guards and taken over the border into Venezuela in January of this year,' his sister, Sophie Hunter, said in a statement provided by the nonprofit. 'We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal.'
According to Global Reach, Castaneda was arrested in his Caracas hotel room on August 28, 2024, while visiting a friend.
'We have prayed for this day for almost a year,' Castaneda's older brother, Christian, said in a statement released by Global Reach. 'My brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the Maduro regime.'
Venezuela's government also confirmed 252 of its citizens were being repatriated. They arrived Friday night at Simón Bolívar International Airport on two flights that departed from El Salvador, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said.
In March, the Trump administration used a sweeping wartime authority to swiftly deport more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they were detained in a notorious mega-prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The deportations caught immigration attorneys and family members by surprise and prompted fierce public backlash.
While the federal government hasn't provided a public accounting of the people on the March flights, attorneys and relatives have confirmed some of those who were transferred to El Salvador. The United States had classified the deportees as gang members in court, though immigration attorneys, advocates and family members have pushed back on that, claiming in many cases that the detainees had no criminal record. It was not immediately clear if these Venezuelans would be held as prisoners when they return to their home country.
In a call with reporters Friday, a senior administration official told reporters the operation was 'down to the wire.'
'We're dealing with a regime in which, you know, there's always a degree of uncertainty on their side, a degree of uncertainty from our side, and things that you would normally expect to move in a in a normal way tend to not move in a normal way,' the official said, adding the Venezuelan side 'had to kind of take one last stand in terms of delaying things, because it's just … a power flex mechanism for them.'
'But at the end of the day, everything worked out, everything is fine, and everyone is safely on the way back to be reunited with their loved ones,' the official added.
Venezuelan officials on Friday afternoon announced the arrival of a separate flight from Texas delivering its citizens, including several children who had been separated from their families and kept in US care. 'On this flight, there can be good news for Venezuelans,' interior minister Diosdado Cabello said, adding, 'more movement' and additional arrivals are expected today.
Family members of several deportees told CNN they had been told to gather for an emergency meeting in Venezuela ahead of the release.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said his government had released 'all the Venezuelan nationals' that had been detained in his country. He posted a video on X showing people in handcuffs boarding a flight and said the transfer was carried out in exchange for 'a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners,' as well as American citizens.
A senior US administration official said dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners were released.
'The United States continues to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and calls for the release of all the remaining political prisoners,' the official said.
US hostage envoy Adam Boehler was in El Salvador on Friday where he planned to meet the group of Americans and Bukele, a senior administration official said. After that meeting the Americans – who the official said were all in good health – were expected to travel back to the US.
Rubio had been in direct touch with Bukele earlier this year, particularly following Bukele's meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in April.
Following that visit, Bukele proposed in a post on X a swap that would include sending the 252 Venezuelans in the Salvadoran prison back to Venezuela in exchange for the release of the same number of political prisoners held in Venezuela. He wrote on X Friday: 'Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TDA).'
The State Department's Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) was involved in the logistics for the Friday swap, a US official said, without providing more detail.
The families of Americans wrongfully detained in Venezuela met virtually with senior national security official Seb Gorka earlier this year, participants and a White House official told CNN.
Following that meeting, an American Air Force veteran was released from imprisonment in Venezuela in May, CNN reported. Joseph St. Clair was released to US special envoy Richard Grenell, the family statement said. St. Clair had been detained since November and was one of nine Americans declared wrongfully detained in Venezuela.
CNN's DJ Judd contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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