Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed on April 20 that El Salvador would be open to exchanging prisoners with Venezuela’s socialist regime.
Specifically, Bukele proposed an agreement that would see prisoners who opposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s heavily-contested reelection in 2024, swapped with the deported Venezuelan nationals sent to El Salvador from the United States.
Venezuela has already indicated it doesn’t intend to take Bukele up on the offer, reiterating its demand for the immediate release of the Venezuelans in Salvadoran custody.
Early in his administration, President Donald Trump produced an agreement with Bukele to detain several hundred deportees whose home country wouldn’t take them back in exchange for $6 million a year. Since then, the two leaders have enjoyed a close partnership.
Those deported under the deal have largely been affiliated with gangs or other organized violent crime—including many Venezuelans who are part of the Tren de Aragua gang and have been convicted of violent crimes such as murder or rape in the United States or elsewhere.
Bukele noted in his post that Maduro had publicly complained about the treatment of Venezuelans under the deal, calling them “political prisoners” of the Trump administration. Bukele rejected that framing, writing, “Unlike you ... we do not have political prisoners.”
The Venezuelans in his custody, Bukele noted, were all arrested in the United States as part of targeted operations against Tren de Aragua and related gangs.
“Unlike our prisoners,” Bukele said, noting that many of these were convicted murderers, rapists, or serial convicts, “your political prisoners have committed no crime.”
Specifically, Bukele’s offer and comments pertain to those arrested for opposition to the Maduro regime’s heavily scrutinized reelection in 2024, which is recognized by most in the West to have been neither a free nor a fair election.
Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. government ruled that Maduro had committed widespread electoral fraud to hold onto power in an election where there was significant anti-incumbent sentiment in Venezuela. The nation had soured on Maduro’s regime amid continued hyperinflation, food shortages, and sanctions from the West.
It’s widely believed that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won that contest with 65 percent of the vote or more. However, the state declared Maduro the winner with around 51 percent to Gonzalez’s 43 percent.
Bukele’s deal proposes the release of those arrested by the Maduro regime amid the backlash surrounding these results.
He listed some specific names whose exchange he was advocating for: Gonzalez’s son-in-law Rafael Tudares, journalist Roland Carreño, and activist and lawyer Rocío San Miguel.
Bukele also called for the mother of María Corina Machado—who was the initial opposition leader before she was banned by the state from participating in the election—to be included in the swap. Bukele said Corina Parisca de Machado, mother of María, “is subjected to daily intimidation and has her access to basic services such as electricity and water sabotaged.”
He additionally called for the release of asylum seekers currently trapped in the Argentinian Embassy as part of a siege ordered by Maduro in the aftermath of the June 2024 election. These opposition leaders, indicted by the Maduro regime, sought sanctuary in the Argentinian Embassy. Because they accepted and are continuing to harbor the opposition figures, the embassy building has been blockaded and its electricity limited.
Bukele described these individuals—including Machado’s campaign manager Magalli Meda, as well as Pedro Urruchurtu, Omar González, Claudia Macero, and Humberto Villalobos—as political leaders.
Bukele’s demands also include swapping around 50 detained citizens from other nationalities, including American, German, Dominican, Argentine, Bolivian, Israeli, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Spanish, French, Guyanese, Dutch, Iranian, Italian, Lebanese, Mexican, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Ukrainian, Uruguayan, Portuguese, and Czech citizens.
In response, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab called Bukele’s statement “cynical.”
Saab referred to CECOT, the Salvadoran prison where U.S. deportees are being housed, as “a torture center created by the macabre mind of Bukele.”
