President El Salvador has proposed to repatriate 252 Venezuelans and be imprisoned if Venezuela releases the same number of political prisoners.
Nayib Bukele appealed directly to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in an article on social media.
He said many of Venezuelan deported people committed “rape and murder”, and Venezuelan political prisoners were simply because they opposed Maduro, and their last year was once again controversial.
The Venezuelan government argues that it has no political prisoners – a claim rejected by rights groups.
In a post on X, Buckler wrote: “I want to suggest you [Maduro] A humanitarian agreement calls for the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans deported in exchange for release…the release of the same number as the thousands of political prisoners you hold”.
He also mentioned nearly 50 prisoners from other ethnic groups, including U.S. citizens, as part of the proposed exchange.
The Venezuelan government has not yet publicly commented on Buckley’s proposal.
More than 200 Venezuelans in the United States have been sent from the United States to El Salvador in recent weeks.
President Donald Trump’s administration accused them of being members of the Tren de Alaguya criminal gang.
Washington paid El Salvador for deportation of those who were deported for their infamous high-security terrorism incarceration centers.
Calling himself “the coolest dictator in the world,” Bucker won reelection last year, winning a wave of popularity to sweep the crackdown on opposition.
Maduro condemned the United States for expelling Venezuelans from El Salvador, describing it as “kidnapping” and “massive abuse” of human rights.
Since taking office in January, Trump’s hard-line immigration policy has encountered many legal obstacles.
In the latest developments, The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Washington on Saturday to suspend the deportation of another group of suspected Venezuelan gang members.
The White House calls for the use of the law to challenge “valuable litigation” for mass deportation.
Trump sent alleged members of the Venezuelan gang under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798, which gave the president the power to detain and expel locals or citizens of “enemy” countries without the usual procedures.
The bill was previously used only three times during the war.
