1:52
- ABC News
- July 19, 2025
Migrants held in El Salvador sent to Venezuela
Over 250 prisoners were released from CECOT, Venezuela's government said.
1:52
Five U.S. citizens and five U.S. permanent residents who had been unlawfully detained in Venezuela were released in a prisoner exchange, according to the group Hostage Aid Worldwide.
They include Renzo Huamanchumo, Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter, Wilbert Castaneda, Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez and Fabian Buglione Reyes, according to the group. They were detained between August 2024 and January 2025, it said.
\"This is a moment of great relief and gratitude,\" Hostage Aid President Nizar Zakka said in a statement. \"Our hearts are filled with joy that these men will finally reunite with their families. We commend the Trump Administration for its diligent and continued efforts to bring Americans unlawfully detained abroad home.\"
The Bring Our Families Home Campaign also confirmed that Hunter, Vargas and Castaneda are among the Americans included in the swap. In a post on X, the group thanked Trump and U.S. officials it says \"stayed true to [their] word\" in securing the Americans' release.
Castaneda is an active-duty U.S. Navy SEAL who was detained in September 2024 following personal travel to Venezuela. He was accused of leading a CIA-linked plot to overthrow Maduro, which the State Department has called \"categorically false.\"
The State Department's Office of Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs shared a photo on X of the Americans on a plane headed back to the U.S. with American flags.
\"Until today, more Americans were wrongfully held in Venezuela than any other country in the world,\" Rubio said in a statement. \"It is unacceptable that Venezuelan regime representatives arrested and jailed U.S. nationals under highly questionable circumstances and without proper due process.\"
ABC News' Shannon Kingston and Aicha Elhammar contributed to this report.
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