Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed a prisoner swap to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday that involves the over 200 suspected Tren de Aragua gang members deported by the United States in March.
In an X post, Bukele outlined the proposal, which includes El Salvador handing over the 252 Venezuelan migrants deported by President Donald Trump for the same number of “political prisoners” held by the Maduro regime.
“I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and delivery of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners that you hold,” Bukele said.
These so-called political prisoners include Rafael Tudares, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez’s son-in-law; journalist Roland Carreno; lawyer and activist Rocio San Miguel; Corina Parisca de Machado, mother of Maria Corina Machado, as well as activists from the U.S., Germany, France, Israel, Mexico, and other countries. Bukele claimed that they have committed no crimes and have only been detained for opposing the Maduro regime.
The proposal comes as Maduro had expressed a desire for the migrants’ return to Venezuela nearly a month ago, decrying Trump’s deportation efforts but placing blame solely on Bukele, whom he urged to immediately work for their return to their native country.
“You have to guarantee their health and sooner rather than later, you have to free them and hand them over,” Maduro said in March.
Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez had also pressed for the migrants’ immediate return to Venezuela, referring to the suspected gang members as their “kidnapped brothers.”
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“Migrating isn’t a crime, and we won’t rest until everyone who wants to return is back and we rescue our kidnapped brothers in El Salvador,” Rodriguez said.
The proposal also follows a deportation dispute in the United States involving one of those migrants deported in March, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was residing illegally in the U.S. for nearly 15 years and is widely suspected to be a member of MS-13. He has been moved to a smaller prison after a Democratic senator met with him during a visit to El Salvador.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
