Bukele Proposes Prisoner Swap For Venezuelan Trump Deportees

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — 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 “political prisoners” in Venezuela.

In a post on the social media platform X, directed at President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year.

“The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” wrote the self-styled “world’s coolest dictator,” a man who himself has been accused of locking up political opponents.

“However, 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.”

Among those he listed were the son-in-law of former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González, 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 María Corina Machado, whose house the political leader has said was surrounded by Venezuelan police in January.

Bukele said he would ask El Salvador’s foreign ministry to be in contact with the Maduro government.

Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office responded Sunday night, calling Bukele’s statements “cynical” and referred to the Salvadoran leader as a “neofascist.”

It demanded Bukele’s government provide the Venezuelan government with a list of the people detained as well as their legal status and medical reports.

“The 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,” it said in the statement.

The proposal comes as El Salvador has come under sharp international scrutiny for accepting Venezuelans…