By Aram Roston and Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -El Salvador's government will send detained Venezuelans to Caracas in exchange for Americans held in Venezuela, two U.S. government officials told Reuters on Friday.
One of the officials said El Salvador would send 238 Venezuelans held in its maximum security CECOT prison to Caracas and that the Venezuelan government would release five U.S. citizens and five U.S. permanent residents to American custody.
The second official confirmed the exchange was
taking place and said the figures appeared to be close to what was expected.
Venezuela's Communications Ministry and El Salvador's presidency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. State Department declined to comment. The White House and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador in March after President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without going through normal immigration procedures.
Family members of many of the Venezuelans and their lawyers deny they had gang ties, and say they were not given a chance to contest the Trump administration's allegations in court.
Venezuela's government has always decried the CECOT detention of its citizens as a violation of human rights and international law. But the government's critics say the country holds activists and opposition figures in similar conditions in Venezuela.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Aram Roston; Additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota; Editing by Mark Porter, Don Durfee and Rod Nickel)
