U.S.-Venezuela prisoner swap frees 10 Americans in exchange for deported migrants
The United States and Venezuela conducted a significant prisoner exchange on Friday, with Caracas releasing 10 American citizens and permanent residents in return for 252 Venezuelan migrants previously deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s high-security CECOT prison.
The swap concluded months of tense negotiations involving Washington, Caracas, and San Salvador, and partially resolved one of the most controversial episodes of President Donald Trump’s second term. In March, Trump had ordered the secret deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans under a rarely used 1798 wartime law, labeling them members of a “terrorist gang” and holding them indefinitely without charge, News.Az reports, citing foreign media..
The Venezuelans were bused from the CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, and placed on two Venezuelan aircraft for their return home. Simultaneously, a U.S.-chartered Gulfstream carrying diplomatic and medical personnel flew to Caracas to retrieve the freed Americans.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed that his government had handed over “all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country.” He also stated that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had released a number of domestic political prisoners as part of the deal.
“Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, calling the detentions “highly questionable” and lacking due process.
Among those released was Lucas Hunter, who was reportedly arrested by Venezuelan border guards while on a windsurfing trip near Colombia in January. “We are grateful that President Trump has made this issue a priority,” Hunter’s sister said. Another freed prisoner, Wilbert Castañeda Gomez, a decorated former Navy SEAL, had been accused by Venezuela of plotting to assassinate Maduro, a charge his family denies.
A statement from Venezuela’s government accused the Americans of “serious crimes” but also confirmed that “alternative measures,” such as home detention, had been granted to 80 Venezuelan political prisoners.
Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify mass deportations without due process has sparked ongoing legal battles over the limits of executive authority. Federal courts have since suspended deportations under the act, though the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the issue.
Many of the Venezuelans were deported on March 15 despite a court order to halt the removals, arriving shackled in El Salvador under a quiet agreement between Rubio and Bukele, who was paid to incarcerate them at the notorious CECOT facility.
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