‘Prayed for this day': 10 Americans freed from Venezuelan prison in prisoner exchange programme; El Salvador releases over 200 Venezuelans
Ten Americans are on their way back to the US following a prisoner exchange involving the United States, El Salvador, and Venezuela, US secretary of state Marco Rubio announced Friday.
As part of the prisoner exchange, more than 200 Venezuelan migrants, who were deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration have left the Central American country and are set to be sent to Venezuela, reported ABC News.
"Until today, more Americans were wrongfully held in Venezuela than any other country in the world, " Rubio stated. "Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland," he added.
Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, a former Navy SEAL is among the Americans who were released, as per CBS News. He was detained in Venezuela last year while he was travelling in the country for personal reasons.
"We have prayed for this day for almost a year. My brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the Maduro regime," Castaneda's family stated.
Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele posted on X, '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).
Many of them face multiple charges of murder, robbery, rape, and other serious crimes.
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.
These individuals are now en route to El Salvador, where they will make a brief stop before continuing their journey home,' he said referring to the release of Venezuelan migrants being detained in the infamous CECOT prison in El Salvador.
The Venezuelans were transferred to El Salvador after the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law allowing for the removal of noncitizens with minimal due process.
Using the act, US authorities deported two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua functions as a 'hybrid criminal state' attempting to infiltrate the US, as per ABC News.
Many of the deportees' families and attorneys have denied their alliance with the gang and an ICE official stated in a sworn federal court declaration that numerous deported individuals did not have any criminal records in the US.
The migrants were transferred to CECOT earlier this year under a $6 million agreement between the Trump administration and Salvadoran President Bukele, aimed at housing migrant detainees as part of Trump's broader immigration crackdown.
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