{"id":10420,"date":"2025-07-18T20:27:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/18\/10-americans-freed-in-prisoner-swap-between-u-s-el-salvador-and-venezuela\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T20:27:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T20:27:30","slug":"10-americans-freed-in-prisoner-swap-between-u-s-el-salvador-and-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/18\/10-americans-freed-in-prisoner-swap-between-u-s-el-salvador-and-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Americans freed in prisoner swap between U.S., El Salvador and Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Washington<\/em> \u2014 Ten Americans are en route to the U.S. after a prisoner swap involving the U.S., El Salvador and Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday.<\/p>\n

“Thanks to @POTUS’s leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom,” Rubio wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Americans were freed from Venezuela in exchange for El Salvador returning 252 Venezuelans who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious prison in El Salvador earlier this year, senior administration officials said, claiming the released Venezuelans were members of the gang Tren de Aragua.<\/p>\n

A former Navy SEAL, Wilbert Joseph Castaneda<\/a><\/span>, is among the Americans released, three sources told CBS News. Castaneda was detained in Venezuela last year while on personal travel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela posted a photo<\/a> of the freed Americans:<\/p>\n

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Ten Americans who were freed from Venezuela in a prisoner swap on Friday, July 18, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

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U.S. Embassy in Venezuela<\/p>\n

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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“As of right now, there are no more Americans who remain wrongfully detained in Venezuela,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday.<\/p>\n

As part of the deal, the Venezuelan government also released dozens of Venezuelan political prisoners and detainees, a senior administration official said.<\/p>\n

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele wrote on X<\/a> that his country “handed over all the Venezuelan nationals detained in our country, accused of being part of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua,” in exchange for “a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners \u2026 as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages.”<\/p>\n

The Trump administration deported more than 200 male Venezuelan citizens<\/a><\/span> to El Salvador in March, accusing them of being part of the transnational gang Tren De Aragua. President Trump invoked an 18th-century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to order officials to quickly deport many of the Venezuelan migrants, deeming them a threat to the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In May, the Supreme Court extended a pause<\/a><\/span> on deportations of Venezuelan migrants detained in northern Texas while they challenge their removals under the wartime law.<\/p>\n

Some of the families of the Venezuelan deportees have denied that they have gang connections, and a “60 Minutes” investigation in April<\/a><\/span> found that most of the detainees did not have criminal convictions.<\/p>\n

A senior administration official said the deal with El Salvador and Venezuela was “essentially down to the wire.” The flight carrying the detainees took off from Venezuela at around 3:40 p.m. ET and left Venezuelan airspace at around 3:55 p.m.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Camilo Montoya-Galvez<\/a><\/p>\n

contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n

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