Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele publicly responded to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday, questioning the logic and sincerity behind his refusal to accept a humanitarian prisoner exchange. The message, posted on social media platform X, follows Maduro’s dismissal of Bukele’s proposal to repatriate 252 Venezuelan criminals in exchange for an equal number of political prisoners held in Venezuela.
“Mr. Nicolás Maduro, you declared yesterday that you will not accept our prisoner exchange proposal. However, your refusal lacks coherence,” Bukele wrote. He went on to point out that Maduro had agreed to a far more disproportionate deal in the past: “You yourself carried out such exchanges before. You even released 30 political prisoners in exchange for just one: Alex Saab, one of your closest collaborators, accused of serious crimes against the Venezuelan people.”
Bukele questioned Maduro’s commitment to securing the return of Venezuelans detained in El Salvador, asking whether previous statements were genuine or part of a political performance. “Didn’t you say you would do ‘whatever it takes’ to achieve the release of the Venezuelans detained in El Salvador? So, were you lying? Was the reception of their families at Miraflores just media theater?”
Reaffirming his offer, Bukele stated that formal documentation had now been sent to the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and called on the international community to judge Maduro’s true intentions.
“I reiterate our proposal, this time attaching the formal documentation sent to your Foreign Ministry. I await your response. And I hope the Venezuelan people, and the whole world, can now clearly see who you really are,” Bukele concluded.