Major Prisoner Swap Frees Americans in Venezuela for Migrants in El Salvador

Ten Americans and U.S. permanent residents who had been seized by the Venezuelan authorities and held as bargaining chips were freed Friday in exchange for the release of more than 200 Venezuelan migrants whom the Trump administration sent to a prison in El Salvador this year.

The release of the Americans and permanent residents was described by a senior administration official and the release of the Venezuelans was described by the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, on X.

The capture and imprisonment of the Americans had been part of the Venezuelan government’s efforts to gain an upper hand in negotiations with the Trump administration, while the detention of the Venezuelan migrants in El Salvador played a high-profile role in President Trump’s promise to deport millions of immigrants.

The Trump administration has accused the men it sent to El Salvador — roughly 250 people — of being members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, though it has provided little evidence to back this up. Their lawyers say they were summarily deported from the United States without due process.

The Trump administration sent the men to a maximum-security prison El Salvador in March, along with several Salvadorans, including Kilmar Abrego García, a man the U.S. government later admitted it had mistakenly deported.

Venezuela’s government began detaining and imprisoning foreigners late last year. Among them was Lucas Hunter, now 37, a U.S. and French citizen who had traveled to Colombia to go kite surfing, according to his family. In an interview, his sister, Sophie Hunter, said he was still in Colombia — close to its border with Venezuela — when he was nabbed by the Venezuelan government in early January. She has been working for his release ever since.