In a dramatic move on Sunday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed swapping 252 detained Venezuelan deportees for similar number of political prisoners held by Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.
Bukele has floated an idea, outlined on X, in the form of a humanitarian swap that would cover deporting Venezuelans locked up in El Salvador some of whom were deported from the U.S. under claims of gang membership in exchange for freeing jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders and journalists. He charged Maduro with imprisoning them just for opposing “electoral fraud.”
Among them are some relatives of right wing presidential candidate Edmundo González, as well as opposition figure María Corina Machado, and citizens of various countries. 
Venezuelan government has not reacted yet.
The move comes at a time of mounting pressure over El Salvador’s practice of jailing deportees in the country’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), including Maryland resident with ties to the U.S., Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has sparked legal fights and human rights alarms.
The mass detentions have been denounced by critics, including El Salvador’s Archbishop, José Luis Escobar Alas. “Don’t make of our country a big prison of the international community,” he said on Sunday.
Bukele claims these were people involved in operations related to gangs like Tren de Aragua and justifies the crackdown.
The suggested prisoner swap represents a daring diplomatic opening, potentially to end decades of bruised human rights dialogue — and likely also to fatten current divides.
