El Salvadoran President Bukele suggests prisoner swap with Venezuelan President Maduro

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed conducting a prisoner swap with Venezuela, saying he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the U.S. for "political prisoners" held in Venezuela. 

Bukele said he wanted to have a humanitarian agreement with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in which he would be willing to release 252 Venezuelans who were deported to El Salvador from the United States if Maduro freed 252 "political prisoners" being held in Venezuela. 

"Unlike you, who have political prisoners, we don't have political prisoners," Bukele said Sunday on the social media platform X. "All the Venezuelans we have in custody were detained as part of an operation against gangs like the Tren de Aragua in the United States."

Some of the political prisoners Bukele said should be freed include the son-in-law of former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González and political leaders attempting to get asylum in the Argentine embassy in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office responded to Bukele and called him “neofascist," according to The Associated Press.

“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,” the office said in a statement.