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 …
