Venezuela’s attorney general accused Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele of “human trafficking” and suggested he face international justice for accepting cash to jail deportees from the United States.
Over 230 Venezuelans were flown in March to Bukele’s notorious CECOT prison, along with around a dozen Salvadorans, under a $6 million deal struck by President Donald Trump’s government.
Venezuela reacted furiously to the deportations — which have also prompted a fierce legal debate in the United States — and has demanded the men’s “unconditional release.”
In an interview with AFP in Caracas late Thursday, Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab took aim at Bukele, suggesting he was little better than a people smuggler.
“He is committing the crime of human trafficking,” the prosecutor said. “It is a dirty business.”
“International justice will be done against Bukele on this issue,” said Saab, who along with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been subject to US sanctions for years over allegedly suppressing their country’s democratic opposition.
The Trump administration has painted the deported men as dangerous blood-crazed gang members, a claim for which they have provided scant evidence.
Some have been charged in US courts with violent offenses, but many have not.
Family members for several of the men staunchly deny any link to gangs and say their loved ones were scooped up for little more than being Venezuelan, migrants and having tattoos.
Slickly produced footage of their arrival in El Salvador — including chained and tattooed men having their heads shaved and being frog-marched by masked guards — was widely promoted by both the Salvadoran and US governments.
US judges have ruled that at least one Salvadoran and one Venezuelan were wrongly deported and should be returned to the United States, orders that Trump and his ally Bukele have so far ignored.
“The Venezuelans who were deprived of their liberty in El Salvador resided in the United States without having previously committed any crime in that country” said Saab “much less in El Salvador.”
The White House insists that aside from having gang links, the men were in the United States illegally and are therefore criminals.
Bukele has dubbed himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”
His hardline rhetoric against El Salvador’s powerful gangs has made him one of the world’s most domestically popular leaders.
But he has also been accused of overseeing mass human rights violations, epitomized by the huge, brutal prison known as CECOT.
In 2021, his government was accused by the administration of then-president Joe Biden of secretly striking deals with gang leaders.
Bukele’s embrace of Trump and his willingness to help earned the Salvadoran leader a mutually fawning Oval Office meeting earlier this month.
During the meeting Trump thanked Bukele for “helping us out” and called him a “hell of a president”, as both enjoyed several minutes criticizing the media and talking about transgender athletes in women’s sports.
By contrast, Venezuela’s leftist leader Maduro delighted his political base by frequently sparring with Bukele.
Bukele has in turn taunted the Venezuelan government about the detained men, offering to exchange them for political prisoners in Venezuela.
Saab called that offer “cynical” and demanded a complete list of the detained migrants.
