Negotiations with a “tyrannical regime” bore fruit as El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced a prisoner swap with Venezuela to bring American hostages home.
While Democrat lawmakers had been throwing fits and launching public relations campaigns to oppose the deportation of illegal aliens, demanding they be returned to the United States, the globalist soapboxes were noticeably silent on detained Americans in Venezuela. Friday, those men and their families could thank President Donald Trump, the State Department, Bukele, and “Almighty God” that the political prisoners were on their way home.
Completing the deportation of the dozens of Venezuelans that the Trump administration had authorized be sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) earlier this year, Bukele shared video of the prisoner swap as he wrote, “Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TDA). Many of them face multiple charges of murder, robbery, rape, and other serious crimes.”
“As was offered to the Venezuelan regime back in April, we carried out this exchange in return for a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners, people that regime had kept in its prisons for years, as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages. This operation is the result of months of negotiations with a tyrannical regime that had long refused to release one of its most valuable bargaining chips: its hostages,” he continued before also sharing a video of the released Americans with the caption, “You’re free now…”
Today, we have handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TDA). Many of them face multiple charges of murder, robbery, rape, and other serious crimes.
As was offered to the Venezuelan… pic.twitter.com/teuIT4GiRT
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 18, 2025
You’re free now… pic.twitter.com/bbI6nfcyIS
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 19, 2025
With the captives heading home via El Salvador, Bukele added, “However, thanks to the tireless efforts of many officials from both the United States and El Salvador, and above all, thanks to Almighty God, it was achieved. In this, as in other matters, I remind you: patience and trust.”
CNN reported the details of the exchange that included roughly 250 Venezuelans who had been deported to El Salvador and were sent back to their home country in exchange for 10 U.S. nationals: Danud Hanid Ortiz, Erick Oribio Quintana, Fabian Buglione Reyes, Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez, Juan Jose Faria Bricen, Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter, Renzo Humanchumo Castillo, Ronald Oribio Quintana, and Wilbert Joseph Castanada.
Hunter was said to have been “coerced” into crossing the border into Venezuela in January by border guards while on a windsurfing trip in Colombia. In a statement provided by the nonprofit Global Reach, working to bring Americans held abroad home, the man’s sister, Sophie Hunter, said, “My family and I are so happy to hear that my brother, Lucas, was released by Venezuela today.”
“We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal,” she added.
Likewise, Castaneda’s brother Christian said of the forthcoming reunion with his sibling reportedly arrested in Aug. 2024 while visiting a friend in Caracas, “We have prayed for this day for almost a year. My brother is an innocent man who was used as a political pawn by the [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro regime.”
Addressing the swap, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on X, “Thanks to @POTUS’s leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom. I want to thank my team at the @StateDept & especially President @nayibbukele for helping secure an agreement for the release of all of our American detainees, plus the release of Venezuelan political prisoners.”
Thanks to @POTUS’s leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom.
I want to thank my team at the @StateDept & especially President @nayibbukele for helping secure an agreement for the release of all of our American detainees, plus the…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 18, 2025
Ten Americans are are their way home from detention in Venezuela! Thanks to @POTUS, @SecRubio, @usembassyve, @aboehler and many others for your support bringing Americans home pic.twitter.com/0lnxkBEZ9S
— Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (@StateSPEHA) July 18, 2025
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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