Nicolás Maduro reacts furiously to Nayib Bukele’s proposal to exchange CECOT imprisoned VenezuelansCECOT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela on Sunday, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the United States his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela.

In a post on the social media platform X, directed at President Nicolás Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year.

“The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and surrender of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.”

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Nicolás Maduro reacts furiously to Nayib Bukele’s proposal to exchange imprisoned Venezuelans in CECOT for political prisoners: “It is a kidnapping and a concentration camp created by Bukele’s macabre mind”

“In response to the cynical statement made by President Nayib Bukele, in which he reaffirms that 252 Venezuelan citizens illegally deported from the United States are arbitrarily detained and in a condition of forced disappearance in a concentration camp of that country, we wish to denounce the following:

Bukele’s statement, who makes his worldwide debut in this way as the most faithful exponent of 21st-century neo-fascism, demonstrates that these citizens are kidnapped at the unilateral disposal of an individual outside the law who publicly and through the media declares to the planet that he tyrannically decides who may or may not enjoy life and freedom in El Salvador.

As we explained in a letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, the treatment received by Venezuelans in the United States and El Salvador constitutes a serious violation of international human rights law and amounts to a crime against humanity that mimics the repugnant Nazi practices of the mid-20th century.

For this reason, I am now sending communications to the Attorney General of El Salvador and the Supreme Court of that country, questioning them on:

a) What crimes have these Venezuelan citizens committed in El Salvador?
b) When were they presented before a judge?
c) Have they had access to a lawyer?
d) Have they been allowed to communicate with anyone since the moment of their detention?

As Attorney General of Venezuela, I immediately request the full list with identification of all those kidnapped and their judicial status, as well as proof of life and a medical report for each one.

The entire world should be appalled by the fact that CECOT is no longer a torture center created by Bukele’s macabre mind to punish criminals in his country, but rather a site of forced disappearance of innocent Venezuelans (according to arrangements with his imperial partners), whom, as an expert in human trafficking, he uses to receive millions of dollars in return.

What has been stated above demands that all international organizations call for the immediate release of our compatriots, who are now vilely kidnapped by a tyrant, and that they proceed to sanction this criminal conduct which violates the most sacred principles of international coexistence, justice, and peace.”