SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) 鈥 Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States his government has kept imprisoned for what he called 鈥減olitical prisoners鈥 in Venezuela.
In a post on the social media platform X, directed at President Nicol谩s Maduro, off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government鈥檚 electoral crackdown last year.
鈥淭he only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,鈥 he wrote to Maduro. 鈥淗owever, 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 surrender of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.鈥
Among those he listed were the son-in-law of former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo Gonz谩lez, a number of political leaders seeking asylum in the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, and what he said were 50 detained citizens from a number of different countries across the world. Bukele also listed the mother of opposition leader Mar铆a Corina Machado, whose house the political leader has said was surrounded by Venezuelan police in January.
Bukele said he would ask El Salvador鈥檚 foreign ministry to be in contact with the Maduro government.
Venezuela鈥檚 prosecutor鈥檚 office responded Sunday night, calling Bukele鈥檚 statements 鈥渃ynical鈥 and referred to the Salvadoran leader as a 鈥渘eofascist.鈥
It demanded Bukele鈥檚 government provide the Venezuelan government with a list of the people detained as well as their legal status and medical reports.
鈥淭he treatment received by Venezuelans in the United States and El Salvador, constitutes a serious violation of international human rights law and constitutes a crime against humanity,鈥 it said in the statement.
The proposal comes as El Salvador has come under sharp international scrutiny for accepting Venezuelans and Salvadorans deported by the Trump administration, which accused them of being alleged gang members with little evidence. Deportees are locked up in a 鈥渕ega-prison鈥 know as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), built by the Bukele government during his crackdown on the country鈥檚 gangs.
Controversy has only continued after it was revealed that a Maryland father married to a U.S. citizen, , was deported by mistake. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the U.S. government to facilitate his return, but there鈥檚 no sign of that happening.
El Salvador鈥檚 archbishop Jos茅 Luis Escobar Alas on Sunday called on Bukele not 鈥渢o allow our country to become a big international prison.鈥
Despite the controversy, Bukele maintained that all of the people he has kept in the prison were 鈥減art of part of an operation against gangs like the Tren de Aragua in the United States.鈥
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Janetsky reported from Mexico City.
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This version has corrected Kilmar Abrego Garcia鈥檚 citizenship status.
