«Terrorists for innocents, that was the formula, and Venezuela is victorious, the Venezuelan family is victorious and at peace,» celebrated this Friday the constitutional president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, as he detailed the release of the 252 Venezuelans who remained kidnapped and tortured under the regime of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador.
From the Poliedro de Caracas (Caracas Polyhedron hall), where he led the National Peasant Congress of the new Ezequiel Zamora National Peasant Union, the Venezuelan president assured that now the truth will be revealed about «the concentration camps in El Salvador, the systematic violations of human rights, and the torture of the Bukele government,» promising that «justice will be done.»*
Maduro explained that Venezuela made an exchange «paying a high price, but it was necessary to get them freed,» highlighting the discreet efforts of congressman and negotiator Jorge Rodríguez with the United States government, along with a Venezuelan team and with the support of former Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Pope Leo XIV, and other international figures:
«We handed over a group of convicted and confessed terrorists, CIA agents, who had entered Venezuela with the intention of assassinating the president, the vice president, and other revolutionary, civilian, and military leaders,» declared the head of state, while projecting images of the landing of the planes repatriating the migrants after more than 125 days of suffering in El Salvador.
The agreement involved the handover of «10 convicted terrorists, captured while neutralizing an attack against Venezuelan leaders,» in exchange for the release of their compatriots. Maduro thanked Rodríguez for his work in the «Bolivarian Diplomacy of Peace,» as well as the Pope, Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Chávez, Zapatero, and even US President Donald Trump “for rectifying this irregular situation.»
He reaffirmed his commitment to rescuing all Venezuelans trapped in «illegal and criminal concentration camps,» including those who wish to return from the nightmare they face in the United States: «I promised to bring them back, and I will keep my promise,» he concluded.