10 Individuals freed by Venezuela in prisoner trade for deportees : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7950x5300+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe8%2F9f%2F22c942c54601a0367fb7692d7047%2Fgettyimages-2224991670.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7950x5300+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe8%2F9f%2F22c942c54601a0367fb7692d7047%2Fgettyimages-2224991670.jpg" class="img" alt="A Venezuelan migrant who was jailed in El Salvador gestures as he gets off a plane at Simon Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela on Friday. El Salvador freed scores of Venezuelans deported from the United States to a notorious maximum security prison, the outcome of a highly coordinated prisoner swap between Caracas and Washington." fetchpriority="high"/> A Venezuelan migrant who was jailed in El Salvador gestures as he will get off a aircraft at Simon Bolívar Worldwide Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela on Friday. El Salvador freed scores of Venezuelans deported from the USA to a infamous most safety jail, the end result of a extremely coordinated prisoner swap between Caracas and Washington. Federico Parra/AFP by way of Getty Pictures cover caption

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Federico Parra/AFP by way of Getty Pictures BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Venezuela has freed 10 Individuals in trade for Venezuelans whom the USA had despatched to a jail in El Salvador, the U.S. and Salvadoran governments stated Friday.

Venezuela additionally launched an unspecified variety of Venezuelan political prisoners as a part of the deal.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed the trade in a message on X, saying his authorities handed over Venezuelans accused of being a part of a gang in trade for "a substantial variety of Venezuelan political prisoners" in addition to Individuals.

A social media account belonging to the State Division's hostage affairs workplace posted a photograph of the lads it stated had been launched from detention in Venezuela on a aircraft.

In a press release, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the USA welcomed the discharge of 10 Individuals and of Venezuelan political prisoners.

The governments didn't title the individuals launched.

A State Division official instructed NPR that the individuals free of Venezuela included U.S. residents and everlasting residents who had been designated as "wrongfully detained" lower than a 12 months in the past. The official, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren't approved to talk publicly, stated the checklist included Wilbert Joseph Castañeda and Lucas Hunter.

In March, the Trump administration despatched about 250 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, whose authorities was paid to deal with them in a most safety jail, generally known as CECOT.

The USA accused lots of the males of being gang members and deported them underneath the Alien Enemies Act, which had not been invoked since World Battle II.

Legal professionals for the Venezuelan deportees argue their switch to El Salvador was unlawful. Dozens of them had been in the midst of asylum instances, and had been held in U.S. detention facilities for months.

On Friday, Bukele revealed a video of males in handcuffs he stated had been being handed over to Venezuela, as they boarded a aircraft taking them to the South American nation.

At the moment, we now have handed over all of the Venezuelan nationals detained in our nation, accused of being a part of the prison group Tren de Aragua (TDA). Lots of them face a number of fees of homicide, theft, rape, and different severe crimes.

As was provided to the Venezuelan… pic.twitter.com/teuIT4GiRT

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 18, 2025

Later, Venezuelan information outlet TeleSur broadcast what it stated was the arrival of a aircraft carrying a gaggle of the Venezuelan migrants residence.

Bukele stated the prisoner swap was the results of "months of negotiations." It was stored secret till Friday — and a number of the kin of the Venezuelan migrants say they came upon about it on social media.

Gabriela Mora, whose husband Carlos Uzcategui was one of many males despatched by the U.S. to El Salvador, tells NPR she was at an occasion at her daughter's faculty in Venezuela when she realized in regards to the information.

"This makes us very completely happy," she instructed NPR by cellphone from Lobatera, a city in Venezuela's Tachira state. "We've waited for this present day for too lengthy."

Uzcategui, a coal miner from Tachira, entered the U.S. in December after he obtained an appointment, via the U.S. authorities's CBP One app, to cross the border and make his case for asylum within the nation.

He was then held in a detention middle in Texas. U.S. immigration officers alleged that tattoos of crowns and stars on his chest had been linked to the Tren de Aragua gang. Uzcategui's household says he bought the tattoos 15 years in the past, earlier than the gang had even been established.