The Trump administration completed a large-scale prisoner swap with Venezuela on Friday, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
About 250 Venezuelans deported from the United States who are currently detained in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador were sent back to their home country in exchange for the remaining American hostages held in Venezuela, the sources said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media 10 Americans were now “on their way to freedom” as part of the swap.
In March, the Trump administration used a sweeping wartime authority to swiftly deport more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they were detained in a notorious mega-prison, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The deportations caught immigration attorneys and family members by surprise and prompted fierce public backlash.
While the federal government hasn’t provided a public accounting of the people on the March flights, attorneys and relatives have confirmed some of those who were transferred to El Salvador. The United States had classified the deportees as gang members in court, though immigration attorneys, advocates and family members have pushed back on that, claiming in many cases that the detainees had no criminal record. It was not immediately clear if these Venezuelans would be held as prisoners when they return to their home country.
Venezuelan officials on Friday afternoon announced the arrival of a flight from Texas delivering an unspecified number of Venezuelans. “On this flight, there can be good news for Venezuelans,” interior minister Diosdado Cabello said, adding that the flight included several children. According to Cabello, “more movement” and additional arrivals are expected today.
Family members of several deportees told CNN they had been told to gather for an emergency meeting in Venezuela ahead of the release.
Rubio had been in direct touch with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele earlier this year, particularly following Bukele’s meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in April.
Following that visit, Bukele proposed in a post on X a swap that would include sending the 252 Venezuelans in the Salvadoran prison back to Venezuela in exchange for the release of the same number of political prisoners held in Venezuela. He wrote on X Friday: “Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TDA).”
The State Department’s Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) was involved in the logistics for the Friday swap, a US official said, without providing more detail.
The families of Americans wrongfully detained in Venezuela met virtually with senior national security official Seb Gorka earlier this year, participants and a White House official told CNN.
Following that meeting, an American Air Force veteran was released from imprisonment in Venezuela in May, CNN reported. Joseph St. Clair was released to US special envoy Richard Grenell, the family statement said. St. Clair had been detained since November and was one of nine Americans declared wrongfully detained in Venezuela.