Venezuela releases jailed Americans in deal that frees migrants deported to El Salvador by US
Lawyers have little access to those in the prison, which is heavily guarded, and information has been locked tight, other than heavily produced state propaganda videos showing tattooed men packed behind bars.
Photos and videos released by El Salvador's government on Friday showed shackled Venezuelans sitting in a fleet of buses and boarding planes surrounded by officers in riot gear. One man looked up and pointed toward the sky as he climbed aboard a plane, while another made an obscene gesture toward police.
After arriving in Venezuela, some of the migrants crossed themselves, cried and hugged one another. They wore face masks and street clothes.
Maduro alleged that some of them were subjected to various forms of abuse at the Salvadoran prison, and one of them even lost a kidney 'due to the beatings he received.'
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told reporters the men would undergo medical tests and background checks before they can go home.
One of the men is reportedly Andry Hernández Romero, a makeup artist who fled Venezuela last year and was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at a border crossing in San Diego before eventually being flown to El Salvador.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., posted on social media Friday night: 'We have been in touch with Andry Hernández Romero's legal team and they have confirmed he is out of CECOT and back in Venezuela. We are grateful he is alive and are engaged with both the State Department and his team.'
In April, Bukele proposed exchanging the Venezuelans for the same number of what he called 'political prisoners' held by Maduro. The suggestion provoked a harsh response from Venezuelan authorities, who called his comments 'cynical' and referred to Bukele as a 'neofascist."
Families say the Americans released are innocent
The State Department office responsible for negotiating the release of American detainees posted a photo Friday evening of the newly released prisoners smiling for the camera inside an airplane bringing them home, some clutching an unfurled American flag.
A plane carrying the freed Americans arrived late Friday evening at Joint Base San Antonio, with some waving flags and rushing to embrace welcomers after they landed.
Among those released was 37-year-old Lucas Hunter, whose family says he was kidnapped in January by Venezuelan border guards from inside Colombia, where he was vacationing.
'We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal,' his younger sister Sophie Hunter said.
Venezuelan authorities detained nearly a dozen U.S. citizens in the second half of 2024 and linked them to alleged plots to destabilize the country.
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