An international deal has been struck that has allowed Venezuelans deported from the United States and imprisoned in El Salvador to return to their home country, in exchange for the release of American citizens and political prisoners held in Venezuela.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that 10 Americans had been released as part of the deal.
“Thanks to @POTUS’s [the president of the United States’] leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom,” Rubio wrote on social media.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele also celebrated the deal, saying that all of the Venezuelan deportees detained in his country have been “handed over”.
“We carried out this exchange in return for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that regime had kept in its prisons for years, as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages,” Bukele, a US ally, wrote in a statement on social media.
“These individuals are now en route to El Salvador, where they will make a brief stop before continuing their journey home.”
Bukele has previously indicated he would be open to a detainee swap to release political prisoners in Venezuela. He and US President Donald Trump have long been critics of their Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, a socialist who has led Venezuela since 2013.
“This operation is the result of months of negotiations with a tyrannical regime that had long refused to release one of its most valuable bargaining chips: its hostages,” Bukele added.
The Venezuelan government confirmed it had received 252 citizens deported from the US and held in El Salvador.
In addition, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told the media that seven children separated from their parents during deportations had also been sent from the US to Venezuela.
Friday’s deal is the latest example of the complex, international negotiations underpinning President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportation in the US.
Such a deal has long been rumoured between the three countries.
But the arrangement raises questions about how Trump’s mass deportation push might be used as leverage for other foreign policy priorities. It has also reignited scrutiny about the treatment of individuals deported from the US to third-party countries they have no relation to.
A controversial deportation
Venezuela has protested the deportation of its citizens from the US to El Salvador, where more than 200 people were sent to a maximum-security prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) in March.
To facilitate that transfer, President Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — a wartime law only used three times prior — to allow for the swift removal of foreign nationals.
The US leader argued that undocumented migration into the US constituted an “invasion” of criminals from outside countries.
His use of that law, however, has faced ongoing legal challenges about its constitutionality.
Critics also have pointed out that El Salvador has faced criticism for alleged human rights abuses in its prisons, including beatings, torture and sleep deprivation.
The CECOT prison is part of Bukele’s own efforts at mass incarceration. It opened in 2023 with space to hold up to 40,000 people.
Trump argued that deporting the 200-plus Venezuelans was an urgent matter because they belonged to gangs like Tren de Aragua. Bukele echoed that accusation on Friday, saying that all the Venezuelan deportees were “accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua”.
But critics point out that some of the men had no criminal record whatsoever.
Lawyers representing some of the deported Venezuelans have since issued complaints alleging that their clients were targeted based on their clothing choices or tattoos, which US immigration officials then used to falsely tie them to gangs.
Third-party deportations
The Trump administration has also maintained that deportations to third-party countries like El Salvador are necessary for immigrants whose home countries will not accept them.
Venezuela has, in the past, refused to accept deportees from the US. Maduro and Trump have had a notoriously rocky relationship. In 2020, Trump even placed a $15m bounty for information that could lead to Maduro’s arrest.
But rather than return to the “maximum pressure” campaign that defined his first term as president, Trump has instead sought negotiations with the Venezuelan government during his second term.
In response, the Maduro government has signalled that it is willing to accept Venezuelan deportees from the US.
For example, it hosted US special envoy Richard Grenell in Caracas in late January, a trip that resulted in the release of six Americans held in Venezuela. The Maduro administration also released a detained US Air Force veteran in May, following another meeting with Grenell.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that Grenell’s mission was to ensure “all US detainees in Venezuela are returned home”. It is unclear how many remain in the country.
The US government, however, continues to deny the legitimacy of Maduro’s presidency. Maduro’s contested election to a third term in 2024 — marred by allegations of fraud — has further weakened his standing on the world stage.
Controversies over mass deportation
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has contended with controversies of its own. Last week, The New York Times reported that the Trump White House had “botched” the agreement to free Americans in Venezuela, after Grenell and Secretary of State Marco Rubio proposed rival deals.
The Times said that Rubio had proposed a trade: American prisoners for the Venezuelans held in El Salvador. But Grenell had offered different terms that would allow Venezuela to continue its trade relationship with the oil giant Chevron, a major boon for its beleaguered economy.
The result was reportedly confusion and uncertainty.
Furthermore, the Trump administration has faced scrutiny at home for its apparent unwillingness to repatriate immigrants who may have been unjustly deported.
In June, District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to ensure the Venezuelan men held in El Salvador received due process in the US. In his decision, Boasberg pointed out that their swift removal in March prevented them from contesting both their deportations and the allegations that they were gang members.
That court order, however, has been put on hold by a federal appeals court in Washington.
Friday’s deal also raises questions about previous Trump administration claims that it was unable to release the deported men from the CECOT prison. Trump officials have long argued that, while in El Salvador, the deportees lie beyond the reach of the US government.
El Salvador’s President Bukele has also claimed he had no power to allow the men’s return. In an Oval Office appearance in April, Bukele spoke to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man briefly held in CECOT after he was wrongfully deported in March.
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele told a reporter.
Media reports indicate that El Salvador received $6m in exchange for holding people deported from the US.