SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The Salvadoran president on Tuesday criticized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro 's rejection of a swap that would see Venezuelan deportees from the United States detained in El Salvador exchanged for what he said were ''political prisoners'' in Venezuela.
Maduro has demanded the immediate release of 250 Venezuelans held in an El Salvador mega-prison built by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to house gang members. Maduro claimed in his weekly televised address on Monday that ''Bukele is a serial violator of the right to freedom, fair treatment, and human dignity.''
He urged that Bukele, instead of an exchange, sign ''a decree granting unconditional freedom'' to the deportees.
For his part, Bukele in a post on X on Tuesday goaded Maduro, asking wasn't the Venezuelan leader the one who said he'd do ''whatever it takes'' to secure the release of the Venezuelans detained in El Salvador.
Bukele and Maduro's comments underscore the two leaders' longstanding animosity, rooted in diametrically opposed political visions. While both governments have faced fierce democratic and human rights criticisms in recent years, Bukele has increasingly cozied up to U.S. President Donald Trump while right-wing figures have long held up Maduro as a example of democratic decay.
Among those Bukele wants set free by Maduro are the son-in-law of former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González, several political leaders seeking asylum in the Argentine Embassy in Venezuela, and what he said were 50 detained citizens from a number of different countries across the world.
In his initial proposal on Sunday, Bukele also listed the mother of Venezuela's opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose house remains allegedly surrounded by Venezuelan police since January.
The proposal triggered an angry response from Venezuela's government, which demanded Bukele's government provide a list of all Venezuelans detained in El Salvador, along with details about their health.
