
Migrants freed from El Salvador reach Venezuela in US deal
There, they were shackled, shorn and paraded before cameras — becoming emblematic of Trump's immigration crackdown and drawing howls of protest. On Friday, after months of legal challenges and political stonewalling, the men arrived at an airport near Caracas, with several walking down the steps with their arms raised and one even kissing the tarmac.
The Trump administration said they were released in exchange for 10 Americans or US residents held in Venezuela, and 'political prisoners,' who number 80, according to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. The migrants' return to Venezuela sparked tearful celebrations among family members who had heard nothing from them in months.
'I don't have words to explain how I feel!' said Juan Yamarte. 'My brother (Mervin) is back home, back in Venezuela.' Mervin's mother told AFP she could not contain her happiness. 'I arranged a party and I'm making a soup,' she said.
The men had been deported from the United States under rarely used wartime powers and denied court hearings. Exiled Salvadoran rights group Cristosal believes that just seven of the 252 men had criminal records. Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro thanked Trump for 'the decision to rectify this totally irregular situation.' The Americans and US residents released in Venezuela, whose identities have not been officially revealed, were taken to San Salvador on their way to the United States and appeared with Bukele and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler at a ceremony at the presidential palace. A video posted on X by Bukele shows the former detainees waving US flags as they descended from their aircraft. 'It is hard to negotiate with a tyrannical regime really, but we were able to do it,' Bukele said.
'We have been in these negotiations trying to set (not just) you — all of you — free, but also 80 political prisoners from Venezuela.' For his part, Boehler thanked Bukele for being 'an unbelievable friend' to the United States. Families in the United States were also excited to see their loved ones return. One had been imprisoned for nearly a year. Global Reach, an NGO that works for wrongly detained Americans, said one of the men freed was 37-year-old Lucas Hunter, held since he was 'kidnapped' by Venezuelan border guards while vacationing in Colombia in January.
'We cannot wait to see him in person and help him recover from the ordeal,' it quoted his younger sister Sophie Hunter as saying. Uruguay said one of its citizens, a resident in the United States, was among those liberated after nine months in Venezuelan detention. — AFP

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Kuwait Times
18 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Six local officials detained over Iraq deadly mall fire
NAJAF: Iraqis mourn the victims of a shopping mall fire in the city of Kut, during their funeral at the Imam Ali Shrine in Iraq's central holy city of Najaf.-- AFP BAGHDAD: Iraq has detained six local officials and suspended other public employees following a fire that killed 61 people at a shopping mall earlier this week, authorities said Saturday. The blaze, which broke out late Wednesday in a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern city of Kut, is the latest fatal disaster in a country where safety regulations are often ignored. After an initial investigation, the interior ministry said 'there was clear negligence among several officials and employees' in Kut, located around 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad. It added that three local officials, including the head of civil defense in Kut, had been detained, and 17 employees suspended from work until further notice. The Commission of Integrity, an anti-graft body, said later that security forces had detained three more officials 'over the violations that led to the fire' at the Corniche Hypermarket Mall, including the head of the violations department at Kut's municipality. Officials say their investigation is ongoing, and the number of detainees may change. Safety standards in Iraq's construction sector are often ignored, and the country—its infrastructure weakened by decades of conflict—frequently experiences fatal fires and accidents. Fires increase during the blistering summer as temperatures approach 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). The cause of the mall fire was not immediately known, but one survivor told AFP an air conditioner had exploded on the second floor before the five-storey building was rapidly engulfed in flames. Several people told AFP they lost family members—and in some cases whole families—who had gone to shop and dine at the mall days after it opened. – AFP

Kuwait Times
20 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Brazil police raid Bolsonaro's home
BRASÍLIA: Brazilian police raided Jair Bolsonaro's home Friday, as a judge imposed further restrictions on the far-right former leader while he stands trial on coup charges that have vexed US president and ally Donald Trump. His son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman who recently moved to the United States to lobby for his father, wrote on X that federal police carried out a 'raid on my father's home this morning.' He lashed out at Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, a Bolsonaro adversary who on Friday ordered the ex-president to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, not leave his home at night, or use social media. Moraes, one of the judges in Bolsonaro's trial for allegedly seeking to nullify leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's 2022 election victory, said the measures were necessary given the 'hostile acts' against Brazil by the accused and his son. This came after Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on the South American powerhouse for what he said was a 'witch hunt' against his ally Bolsonaro. Moraes, said Eduardo Bolsonaro, 'has long abandoned any semblance of impartiality and now operates as a political gangster in robes, using the Supreme Court as his personal weapon.' The judge was 'trying to criminalize President Trump and the US government. Powerless against them, he chose to take my father hostage,' he added in a letter he signed as a 'Brazilian congressman in exile.' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday Washington was revoking a US visa for Moraes for his 'political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro.' Accusing him of creating a 'persecution and censorship complex,' Rubio also announced visa restrictions on other judges who side with Moraes, as well as their immediate family members. Bolsonaro, 70, described the Moraes order Friday as a 'supreme humiliation' and said the prohibitions were 'suffocating.' — AFP It also prohibited him from approaching foreign embassies, and confined him to his home on weekdays between 7pm and 6am, and all day on weekends or public holidays. 'I never thought about leaving Brazil, I never thought about going to an embassy,' Bolsonaro insisted on emerging from the justice secretariat offices in Brasilia. He had been taken there after the raid, during which police seized cash. His defense team in a statement expressed 'surprise and indignation' at the new measures. – AFP

Kuwait Times
21 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Bangladesh's main Islamist party holds mega rally
DHAKA: Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh's main Islamist party rallied on Saturday, demanding an overhaul of the electoral system as the country gears up for polls next year. The Jamaat-e-Islami party has gained significant momentum since the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a popular uprising last year. During her tenure, Hasina took a hardline stance against Jamaat, even cancelling its registration as a political party. For decades, Jamaat was barred from holding public rallies. Last month, the Supreme Court restored the party's registration, paving the way for its participation in elections slated for next April. 'We have suffered a lot in the last 15 years. We went to jail, we were robbed of our political rights,' Mohammad Abdul Mannan, a 29-year-old party activist, told AFP. Demonstrators braving the sweltering heat in the capital demanded changes to the distribution of seats, calling for proportional representation. 'We've gathered here in masses to press our seven-point demand, which includes participatory representation in parliament,' Mannan said. 'Elections shouldn't be held unless our demands are fulfilled.' After independence, Jamaat was banned. It later re-emerged and registered its best electoral performance in 1991 when it secured 18 seats. The party joined a coalition government in 2001, but failed to build lasting popular support. 'We want a proportional representation system so that winners can't take all—we too deserve a voice,' Mannan said. Tens of thousands of demonstrators began swarming the Suhrawardy Udyan memorial in capital Dhaka by midday, spilling out into the surrounding park. Some wore T-shirts bearing the party's logo, others sported headbands inscribed with its name, while many displayed metallic badges shaped like a scale — the party's electoral symbol. Md Shafiqul Islam, 58, travelled from Bogura — a stronghold of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is eyeing a landslide victory in the polls. 'I felt it was my duty as a Muslim to attend. Jamaat-e-Islami promises to establish an Islamic country, and that's why I came,' Shafiqul told AFP. During Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad, a role that sparks anger among many Bangladeshis today. Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal sentenced several of Jamaat-e-Islami's senior leaders to death for their roles in the war, executing four of them. Many Bangladeshis believe the party must acknowledge its past to regain public trust and become a viable electoral force. But at the rally, supporters offered a different take. 'Jamaat is being blamed unfairly,' said a 33-year-old private service holder, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. 'It did nothing except uphold the integrity of the nation.' — AFP