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Venezuela frees 10 Americans in swap for deported migrants

2 1
19.07.2025

The Trump administration announced Friday it helped facilitate a prisoner swap, securing the release of 10 U.S. citizens held in Venezuela in exchange for the return of more than 250 Venezuelan men the U.S. had sent to be imprisoned in El Salvador.

The Venezuelan men have spent months in El Salvador’s most notorious prison, known by its Spanish acronym CECOT, after the Trump administration ignited the Alien Enemies Act to deport them in March. It is unclear what fate awaits them in Venezuela.

In exchange, the Venezuelan government released all U.S. residents held by the Maduro regime.

“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,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

While the Trump administration has accused the Venezuelan men it deported under the rarely used wartime authorities of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, the evidence appeared to be slim.

Many of........

© The Hill