Bukele slams Venezuela over migrant abuse probe

SAN SALVADOR

In this photo released by the El Salvador's Presidential Press Office, President Nayib Bukele greets a U.S. citizen who was released by the Venezuelan government, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Friday, July 18, 2025. (El Salvador's Presidential Press Office office via AP)

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele lashed out at the Venezuelan government on July 21 after it announced an investigation into alleged torture of migrants deported by the United States and jailed in El Salvador.

More than 250 migrants held in a notorious Salvadoran prison returned to Venezuela on July 18 as part of a prisoner exchange agreed with the United States.

The deal involved the release of 10 U.S. citizens and residents detained in Venezuela.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced an investigation on July 21 against Bukele and other Salvadoran officials, whom he accused of committing crimes against humanity for alleged abuses of migrants imprisoned for nearly four months in El Salvador.

The migrants, jailed in CECOT prison built to house dangerous gang members, suffered sexual abuse, daily beatings, rotten food, and torture, Saab said.

Bukele said on social media that President Nicolas Maduro's government was "satisfied with the exchange agreement; that's why they accepted it."

Authorities in Venezuela "are now shouting and getting angry, not because they disagree with the deal, but because they just realized they're no longer holding hostages from the most powerful country in the world [the United States]," he added.

In March, Washington sent the Venezuelans to El Salvador after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to deport the men without court hearings.