US sent 324 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador prison: Maduro

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
30 Mar 2025 07:15

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accuses the US of transferring 324 Venezuelan migrants to a high-security prison in El Salvador without due process.

Listen

This handout picture released by the Venezuelan Presidency Press office shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaking to supporters during a visit to the Petare neighborhood in Caracas on March 27, 2025 (Photo by MARCELO GARCIA / Venezuelan Presidency / AFP)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Saturday that 324 Venezuelan migrants have been transferred by the United States to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador—an updated figure higher than previously reported.

However, he stated that neither Washington nor San Salvador has provided an official list of those detained.

On March 16, US President Donald Trump invoked rarely used wartime legislation to transport the Venezuelans to El Salvador without granting them any form of court hearing.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele reported that 238 Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador after US authorities accused them of being affiliated with the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

During a meeting in Caracas with foreign ministers from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Maduro condemned the transfer, calling it "an embarrassment" and likening it to a "Nazi concentration camp."

"Officially no authority from either the United States or El Salvador has sent an official communication recognizing who was kidnapped," he stated.

ALBA is made up of Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia, and several of the ministers attending the meeting backed Maduro.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez denounced the transfer as "an atrocious act" that violates legal jurisdiction and due process, describing it as "cruel inhuman and degrading treatment."

Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa also criticized "the criminalization of migrants" and their detention in third countries.

Maduro has called for the group's return to Venezuela and has retained a law firm in El Salvador to pursue legal action. He also reached out to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, urging the UN to intervene for their protection.

Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United States were severed in 2019. In January, the two countries reached an agreement to facilitate US deportation flights to Venezuela, but the initiative was suspended after Trump revoked oil giant Chevron’s license to operate in the country.

The flights resumed last week, and Venezuela has so far received 743 deportees, with an additional 229 expected to arrive on Sunday.