Latest news with #prisonerExchange
Washington Post
19 hours ago
- Washington Post
Families welcome Venezuelans released from El Salvador with joy, grief
Angela Leal went to bed Thursday and recited the prayer she has whispered to herself each night for the last four months. She asked God to keep her husband safe, to give him strength and to bring him home. The next morning, she woke to the answer she'd been waiting for: The United States had made a deal with the Venezuelan government to send more than 250 Venezuelans jailed in El Salvador back home. The men deported from the U.S. would be landing on two flights in exchange for the release of 1o American citizens and permanent U.S. residents imprisoned in Venezuela.
CTV News
a day ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Venezuela releases 10 jailed Americans in deal that frees migrants deported to El Salvador by U.S.
Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, right, and First Lady Cilia Flores welcome children of Venezuelan migrants, whose parents were deported separately from the United States, at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela on July 18, 2025. (Ariana Cubillos / AP Photo) CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela released 10 jailed Americans on Friday in exchange for getting home scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, officials said. The arrangement represents a diplomatic achievement for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, helps President Donald Trump in his goal of bringing home Americans jailed abroad and lands El Salvador a swap that its president had proposed months ago. 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement in which he thanked El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. Bukele said his country had handed over all the Venezuelan nationals in its custody. The Venezuelan government said it had paid a 'steep price' by having to release the U.S. nationals but was pleased to have its own jailed citizens back. Central to the deal are the more than 250 Venezuelan migrants being freed by El Salvador, which in March agreed to a US$6 million payment from the Trump administration to house them in a notorious Salvadoran prison. The arrangement drew immediate blowback when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove men his administration had accused of belonging to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang. The administration did not provide evidence to back those claims. The Venezuelans have been held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele's war on the country's gangs. Human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths and cases of torture inside its walls. Among the Americans freed Friday 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,' said his younger sister Sophie Hunter. The release of the Venezuelans is an invaluable win for Maduro as he presses his efforts to assert himself as president despite credible evidence that he lost reelection last year. Long on the receiving end of accusations of human rights abuses, Maduro for months used the men's detention in El Salvador to flip the script on the U.S. government, forcing even some of his strongest political opponents to agree with his condemnation of the migrants' treatment. The migrants' return will allow Maduro to reaffirm support within his shrinking base, while it demonstrates that even if the Trump administration and other nations see him as an illegitimate president, he is still firmly in power. The release comes just a week after the State Department reiterated its policy of shunning Maduro government officials and recognizing only the National Assembly elected in 2015 as the legitimate government of the country. Signed by Rubio, the cable said U.S. officials are free to meet and have discussions with National Assembly members 'but cannot engage with Maduro regime representatives unless cleared by the Department of State.' 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. '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, said a statement from Christian Casteneda, whose brother Wilbert, a Navy SEAL, was arrested in his Caracas hotel room last year. Global Reach, a nonprofit organization that had advocated for his release and that of several other Americans, said Venezuelan officials initially and falsely accused him of being involved in a coup but backed off that claim. The Americans were among dozens of people, including activists, opposition members and union leaders, that Venezuela's government took into custody in its brutal campaign to crack down on dissent in the 11 months since Maduro claimed to win reelection. The U.S. government, along with several other Western nations, does not recognize Maduro's claim to victory and instead points to tally sheets collected by the opposition coalition showing that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won the July 2024 election by a more than a two-to-one margin. The dispute over results prompted immediate protests, and the government responded by detaining more than 2,000 people, mostly poor young men. Gonzalez fled into exile in Spain to avoid arrest. Despite the U.S. not recognizing Maduro, the two governments have carried out other recent exchanges. In May, Venezuela freed a U.S. Air Force veteran after about six months in detention. Scott St. Clair's family has said the language specialist, who served four tours in Afghanistan, had traveled to South America to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. St. Clair was handed over to Richard Grenell, Trump's envoy for special missions, during a meeting on a Caribbean island. Three months earlier, six other Americans whom the U.S. government considered wrongfully detained in Venezuela were released after Grenell met with Maduro at the presidential palace. Grenell, during the meeting in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, urged Maduro to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the U.S. Hundreds of Venezuelans have since been deported to their home country, but more than 200 deported from the U.S. have been held since mid-March at the prison in El Salvador. 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. As a result, prominent human rights groups and lawyers working with the Venezuelans on legal cases had little information of their movement until they boarded the plane. Tucker reported from Washington and Janetsky from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Matt Lee and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report. By Regina Garcia Cano, Eric Tucker and Megan Janetsky.
New York Times
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Prisoner Swap Frees Americans in Venezuela for Migrants Held in El Salvador
Americans and U.S. permanent residents who had been seized by the Venezuelan authorities and held as bargaining chips were freed Friday in exchange for the release of more than 200 Venezuelan migrants whom the Trump administration sent to a prison in El Salvador this year. The release of the Americans and permanent residents was described by a senior administration official and the release of the Venezuelans was described by the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, on X. The capture and imprisonment of the Americans had been part of the Venezuelan government's efforts to gain an upper hand in negotiations with the Trump administration, while the detention of the Venezuelan migrants in El Salvador played a high-profile role in President Trump's promise to deport millions of immigrants. The Trump administration has accused the men it sent to El Salvador — roughly 250 people — of being members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, though it has provided little evidence to back this up. Their lawyers say they were summarily deported from the United States without due process. Venezuela's government began detaining and imprisoning foreigners late last year. Among them was Lucas Hunter, now 37, a U.S. and French citizen who had traveled to Colombia to go kite surfing, according to his family. In an interview, his sister, Sophie Hunter, said he was still in Colombia — close to its border with Venezuela — when he was nabbed by the Venezuelan government in early January. She has been working for his release ever since. Six other American prisoners came home from Venezuela in late January, their freedom secured after an unusual and highly public visit by a Trump administration official to Venezuela. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
a day ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
U.S. swaps Venezuelans sent to El Salvador for Americans held by Caracas
More than 250 Venezuelans deported in March by the Trump administration and flown to El Salvador's high security 'counterterrorism' prison were sent home Friday in exchange for 1o U.S. citizens imprisoned in Venezuela by the government of President Nicolás Maduro. In a carefully coordinated series of events following months of negotiations by the State Department, the Venezuelans were bused from the prison to El Salvador's international airport Friday morning and picked up by an aircraft sent from Venezuela. Simultaneously, a U.S.-chartered Gulfstream plane departed a small Georgia airport carrying U.S. diplomatic officials and medical personnel en route to Caracas.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How Trump officials botched a deal to get Americans out of Venezuelan prisons in exchange for deported migrants
Despite the Trump administration's claims that dozens of Venezuelan deportees sent to El Salvador's brutal maximum-security prison were no longer the responsibility of the United States, officials appeared to be willing to use them as a bargaining chip in a failed prisoner exchange. Donald Trump's administration was reportedly working on two separate deals to bring home 11 American citizens and legal permanent residents imprisoned in Venezuela in exchange for sending home roughly 250 Venezuelans who were deported from the United States to El Salvador. But those competing negotiations, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in one camp and presidential envoy Richard Grenell in another, appear to have fallen apart, leaving U.S. citizens and about 80 political prisoners in Venezuelan jails without a deal in sight. Trump's envoy offered up his own conflicting deal with Venezuela that offered up the continued operation of oil and gas giant Chevron, a massive financial pipeline for the Venezuelan government, according to The New York Times, citing people familiar with the talks. The strategy also appeared to undermine the United States' antagonistic approach to Nicolas Maduro's regime and previous attempts in Trump's first term to oust him through sanctions and diplomatic isolation. Roughly 250 Venezuelans were deported to El Salvador's brutal Terrorism Confinement Center beginning March 15, when the president invoked a centuries-old wartime law that labelled alleged Tren de Aragua gang members 'alien enemies' who could be summarily deported. The White House claims that Maduro directed an 'invasion' of gang members into the country — contradicting reports from U.S. intelligence agencies. Administration officials repeatedly have claimed for months that the United States no longer has jurisdiction over deportees now locked up in El Salvador. But authorities there recently told the United Nations that the 'legal responsibility for these people lie exclusively' with the U.S. government. The administration has argued it is powerless to move those detainees out of El Salvador despite federal court orders, yet officials were putting them in play for the botched prison transfer. 'This is yet another piece of evidence that the administration is deliberately stonewalling the courts and refusing to cooperate,' American Immigration Council fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele had first hinted at prospects of a 'humanitarian agreement' with the countries in April, weeks after agreeing to imprison U.S. deportees in CECOT. Venezuelan officials, meanwhile, had dismissed the proposal and demanded the return of their 'kidnapped' countrymen. The initial prison swap talks were led by Rubio — who also serves as acting national security adviser, among other roles — and John McNamara, the top U.S. diplomat in Columbia, according to The Times. But Grenell — who is also the acting head of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — had called the president to tell him he was making an offer of his own that included a Chevron deal more favorable to Venezuela, The Times reported. The White House, meanwhile, was fielding threats from Republican allies to pull their support from his massive spending bill if the administration eased oil sanctions against Venezuela. 'The uncoordinated pause in arms to Ukraine and the uncoordinated prisoner diplomacy with Venezuela both reflect not just generalized dysfunction in Trump 2.0 foreign policy process but specifically the weakness of the dual-hatted SecState/National Security Advisor,' according to Brian Finucane, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group and senior fellow at Reiss Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law. Grenell declined an interview request with The Times, 'but in an email used a profanity to denounce The Times's account of the separate deals as false,' according to the outlet. 'There is no fraction or division,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 'The president has one team, and everyone knows he is the ultimate decision maker.' A swap would likely involve the return of 11 Americans, including Lucas Hunter, who was arrested in January, and Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez, who was arrested last year. In May, Grenell had traveled to Venezuela on a separate trip to secure the release of Air Force veteran Joseph St. Clair, who was imprisoned in the country since November 2024. Grenell also helped release six other Americans in January shortly after Trump entered office. Maduro's government, meanwhile, has wrongfully detained at least 85 people with foreign citizenship, according to human rights watchdog organization Foro Penal.
