(CTN News) – Venezuela released 10 U.S. citizens and permanent residents on Friday in exchange for hundreds of migrants deported to El Salvador months earlier as part of the Trump administration’s immigration campaign.
Nicolás Maduro wins a diplomatic success, Americans are repatriated, and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele gets a trade he requested months before in the intricate three-country pact.
Besides thanking Bukele, Trump supporter Marco Rubio said, “Every American who was wrongfully detained in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.”
Bukele claims El Salvador released all. Maduro called Friday “a day of blessings and good news for Venezuela.” It was “the perfect day for Venezuela,” he said.
Venezuelans leave El Salvador mega-prison.
El Salvador received $6 million from the Trump administration in March to release 250 Venezuelan refugees from its notorious prison. The Supreme Court challenged Trump’s quick deportation of Tren de Aragua gang members under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act. The government’s claims are untrue.
Venezuelan gang members occupied Bukele’s CECOT mega-prison. Human rights groups report hundreds of cases of torture and deaths in homes.
Lawyers only see state propaganda, as tattooed hostages are constantly under surveillance. On Friday, El Salvador’s government posted photographs and videos of chained on buses and planes with riot police. One plane passenger pointed at the sky, another at cops. Crossing Venezuela, refugees hugged and cried. People wore masks and casual attire.
A Salvadoran prisoner lost a kidney due to the beatings he received.
The lads would return home after background and medical checks, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told reporters. ICE in San Diego deported Venezuelan makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero to El Salvador last year.
“Andry Hernández Romero’s legal team confirmed he is back in Venezuela and out of CECOT,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., tweeted Friday night. Glad he’s working with State Department colleagues.
Bukele offered to sell Maduro’s April “political prisoners” for Venezuelans. Venezuela called Bukele “neofascist” and “cynical.”
Families claim liberated Americans are innocent.
The State Department office that negotiates the release of American detainees posted a photo Friday night of newly released inmates smiling for the camera on a flight home, some holding an unfolded American flag.
Some released Americans landed on a plane at Joint Base San Antonio late Friday night and immediately raised flags and hailed welcomers. Venezuelan border police arrested Lucas Hunter, 37, in Colombia in January.
His younger sister, Sophie Hunter, said, “We can’t wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal.” Late 2024 saw arrest several dozen Americans for unruly activities. We waited over year. Wilbert, Christian Castaneda’s Navy SEAL brother, was captured in his Caracas hotel room last year.
“It was a political ploy to use my brother by the Maduro regime.” Global Reach, which fought for his and other Americans’ freedom, said Venezuelan officials initially accused him of a coup but then recanted.
Three-country trade benefits Maduro.
Venezuelans’ release has helped Maduro, who wants to be president despite overwhelming evidence that he lost reelection last year. For months, Maduro has blasted the U.S. and his political rivals for detaining migrants in El Salvador.
Even though the Trump administration and others believe Maduro is illegitimate, his return will soothe his diminishing adherents and demonstrate his dominance. A week ago, the U.S. State Department stressed that it will only recognize the 2015-elected National Assembly as the real government, not Maduro regime officials.
Rubio authorized a cable permitting U.S. personnel to speak with National Assembly members but not Maduro regime officials without State Department approval.
Maduro arrests dissenters after attack.
11 months after Maduro’s reelection, Venezuela arrested several opposition members, union leaders, and activists, including Americans. Many Western nations outside of the US reject Maduro’s claim of victory.
They cite opposition coalition count sheets showing Edmundo González won in July 2024 by nearly two to one. 2,000 underprivileged young men were arrested during protests. González fled to Spain.
Over 7.7 million have fled since Maduro took office and the oil-dependent economy collapsed in 2013. Many went to the U.S. to thrive after COVID-19, but most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The US and Venezuela coordinated leaks.
Despite conversations, the US does not recognize Maduro. A Venezuelan Air Force veteran was released in May after six months. Language specialist Joseph St. Clair, who served four deployments in Afghanistan, went to South America to recover from PTSD, according to his family.
Three months earlier, Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell met with Maduro at the presidential palace and released six more Americans it claimed were illegally imprisoned in Venezuela.
Grenell demanded that Maduro send criminals from Caracas to the US. Venezuelans flooded back. After their parents were deported, Maduro accused Trump of “kidnapping” the kids into foster care.
SOURCE: AP
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