Americans being held in Venezuela have been released in exchange for Venezuelan migrants being held in El Salvador after being deported from the U.S., the State Department announced on Friday.
“Today, thanks to President Trump’s leadership and commitment to the American people, the United States welcomes home ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela. Until today, more Americans were wrongfully held in Venezuela than any other country in the world. It is unacceptable that Venezuelan regime representatives arrested and jailed U.S. nationals under highly questionable circumstances and without proper due process. Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,” Rubio said in an official statement.
The detaining of Americans has been used by the Venezuelan government as a negotiating tactic with the Trump administration. The deportation of roughly 250 Venezuelan illegal immigrants from the U.S. to El Salvador made national headlines with the administration accusing many of being part of the violent Tren de Aragua gang.
President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele commended the diplomatic efforts of his country and his U.S. allies. “Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TDA). Many of them face multiple charges of murder, robbery, rape, and other serious crimes,” he wrote on X.
“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. However, thanks to the tireless efforts of many officials from both the United States and El Salvador, and above all, thanks to Almighty God, it was achieved,” Bukele concluded.
Some of the Americans being released by Venezuela told the New York Times that they had been seized and hooded by the government’s authorities and confined to concrete cells, beaten, pepper-sprayed and subjected to “psychological torture.”
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