Nayib Bukele offered Venezuela a “humanitarian” agreement to repatriate the 252 Venezuelans sent by President Donald Trump to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, in exchange for the release of 252 alleged political prisoners.
The Salvadoran president wrote in a social media post addressed to Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro that “unlike our detainees… your political prisoners have not committed any crimes.”
His post called for the “release and surrender” of a journalist, lawyer and activist, four political leaders and almost 50 detainees of other nationalities, including U.S., European and Middle Eastern nationals.
The offer made no mention of Trump, who is paying El Salvador $6 million to house Venezuelan migrants “pending the United States’ decision on their long-term disposition,” according to court filings.
Señor @NicolasMaduro, usted ha dicho en numerosas ocasiones que quiere a los venezolanos de regreso y en libertad.A diferencia de usted, que tiene presos políticos, nosotros no tenemos presos políticos. Todos los venezolanos que tenemos bajo custodia fueron detenidos en el…
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 20, 2025
Last month Trump invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act and abruptly sent about 250 Venezuelan migrants and a handful of Salvadorans—including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland father—to CECOT, a Salvadoran mega-prison where inmates sleep on bare metal racks and are locked in their cells for 23 and a half hours every day.
The prisoners are denied recreation, education and visitation. Lawyers for the deportees say they have been denied any contact with their families, and legal counsel.
The vast majority of the detainees do not have criminal records, according to an investigation by 60 Minutes.
Several were in the U.S. legally applying for asylum after suffering persecution at the hands of the Maduro government, their lawyers said. One had already been granted refugee status when he was rounded up and deported without warning.
It wasn’t clear whether Bukele was offering to repatriate the men in exchange for guarantees they would be imprisoned in Venezuela.
Nor was it clear whether he really intended to bypass the U.S., or whether he had publicly posted his offer directly to Venezuela as a way to bolster the Trump administration’s claims it no longer has any legal authority over the men in question.
U.S. officials have argued they can’t bring the CECOT detainees home—including Abrego Garcia—unless Bukele wants to send them back. Bukele, however, joined Trump in the Oval Office and told reporters it was “preposterous” to suggest he release Abergo Garcia to the U.S.
So far, the federal courts have soundly rejected those arguments when it comes to Abrego Garcia. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on April 10 that the U.S. government must “facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador.”
It also ruled the Venezuelans could not be deported without access to due process.
Bukele nevertheless wrote on social media that his foreign ministry would forward Venezuela a formal proposal for the prisoner swap.
The country’s chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab blasted the offer in a statement, Reuters reported. He demanded to know what crimes the detainees had been accused of, whether they had appeared before a judge and had access to legal counsel, and whether they had been allowed to contact their families.
The offer reaffirmed that the Venezuelan deportees “are being arbitrarily detained and in a condition of forced disappearance,” he wrote.
🚨 #ÚLTIMAHORA ⚖️ Fiscal General de la República Tarek William Saab: 🗣️ “Bukele acepta que mantiene secuestrados a 252 venezolanos en El Salvador” 📌 Aquí el comunicado pic.twitter.com/nccz8Ay6Mi
— AgenciaVNews (@AgenciaVNews) April 21, 2025
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