CNN
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\n The Trump administration completed a large-scale prisoner swap with Venezuela on Friday, sending about 250 Venezuelans who had been deported and imprisoned in El Salvador back to their home country in exchange for 10 US nationals, officials said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media the Americans, the last known to be detained in Venezuela, were now \u201con their way to freedom.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cUntil today, more Americans were wrongfully held in Venezuela than any other country in the world,\u201d Rubio said in a statement. \u201cEvery wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Among the Americans released were Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter and Wilbert Joseph Castaneda, a US official confirmed.\n <\/p>\n
\n The sister of Hunter, 37, previously told CNN he had vacationed in the region in late 2024 to kite surf. The nonprofit Global Reach said he was \u201ckidnapped by Venezuelan border guards from inside Columbia\u201d in January.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy family and I are so happy to hear that my brother, Lucas, was released by Venezuela today. Lucas was vacationing in Colombia when he was kidnapped by Venezuelan border guards and taken over the border into Venezuela in January of this year,\u201d his sister, Sophie Hunter, said in a statement provided by the nonprofit. \u201cWe cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n According to Global Reach, Castaneda was arrested in his Caracas hotel room on August 28, 2024, while visiting a friend.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have prayed for this day for almost a year,\u201d Castaneda\u2019s older brother, Christian, said in a statement released by Global Reach. \u201cMy brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the Maduro regime.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Venezuela\u2019s government also confirmed 252 of its citizens were repatriated Friday.\n <\/p>\n
\n 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.\n <\/p>\n
\n While the federal government hasn\u2019t provided a public accounting of the people on the March flights, attorneys and relatives have confirmed<\/a> 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.\n <\/p>\n \n In a call with reporters Friday, a senior administration official told reporters the operation was \u201cdown to the wire.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a regime in which, you know, there\u2019s always a degree of uncertainty on their side, a degree of uncertainty from our side, and things that you would normally expect to move in a in a normal way tend to not move in a normal way,\u201d the official said, adding the Venezuelan side \u201chad to kind of take one last stand in terms of delaying things, because it\u2019s just \u2026 a power flex mechanism for them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBut at the end of the day, everything worked out, everything is fine, and everyone is safely on the way back to be reunited with their loved ones,\u201d the official added.\n <\/p>\n \n Venezuelan officials on Friday afternoon announced the arrival of a flight from Texas delivering its citizens. \u201cOn this flight, there can be good news for Venezuelans,\u201d interior minister Diosdado Cabello said, adding that the flight included several children who had been separated from their families and kept in US care. According to Cabello, \u201cmore movement\u201d and additional arrivals are expected today.\n <\/p>\n \n Family members of several deportees told CNN they had been told to gather for an emergency meeting in Venezuela ahead of the release.\n <\/p>\n \n Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said his government had released \u201call the Venezuelan nationals\u201d that had been detained in his country. He posted a video on X showing people in handcuffs boarding a flight and said the transfer was carried out in exchange for \u201ca considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners,\u201d as well as American citizens.\n <\/p>\n \n A senior US administration official said dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners were released.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe United States continues to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and calls for the release of all the remaining political prisoners,\u201d the official said.\n <\/p>\n \n US hostage envoy Adam Boehler was in El Salvador on Friday where he planned to meet the group of Americans and Bukele, a senior administration official said. After that meeting the Americans \u2013 who the official said were all in good health \u2013 were expected to travel back to the US.\n <\/p>\n \n Rubio had been in direct touch with Bukele earlier this year, particularly following Bukele\u2019s meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in April.\n <\/p>\n